


The golden crown

by ItzZaira



Series: The Dark Sanses [5]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dreamtale (Undertale), Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Backstory, Brother Feels, Brotherly Affection, Brotherly Angst, Brotherly Bonding, Brotherly Love, Caring Dreamtale Nightmare Sans (Undertale), Childhood Memories, Crying, Dream cares about his brother, Dream is a good brother, Fluff and Angst, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmare still loves Dream (like a brother), No Incest, Parental Dreamtale Nightmare Sans (Undertale), Passive Dreamtale Nightmare Sans (Undertale), Pictures, Poor Dream and Nightmare, Poor Dreamtale Nightmare Sans (Undertale), Poor Dreamtale Sans (Undertale), Protective Dreamtale Nightmare Sans (Undertale), Protective Dreamtale Sans, Repressed Memories, Sad Dreamtale Nightmare Sans (Undertale), Sneaking Around, Sobbing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:01:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26631787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItzZaira/pseuds/ItzZaira
Summary: !!NO ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS, NO SANSCEST, NO DREAMCEST AND NO INCEST!!!Dream and Nightmare are brothers and brothers only!!You yogurts.~~When Nightmare goes on a solo mision, the gang take their chance, and sneak around Nightmare's room. They expected to find.. well.. nothing.What they didn't expect was a picture of Dream with another skeleton in a purple suit.Or the crown that looked identical to the one Dream had.Its time for Nightmare to see the truth about his past. Mainly, his brother.
Relationships: Dream & Ink (friend), Nightmare & Dream (brotherly), Nightmare & Nightmare gang, No Romantic Relationship(s)
Series: The Dark Sanses [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1519565
Comments: 208
Kudos: 303





	1. The purple skeleton

**Trigger Warning: this story will have a mention of a failed suicide attempt.**

"This is a bad idea.." Killer grumbled under his breath, watching Dust and Horror look around the room from the door, the smallest skeleton, Cross, behind him.

"I agree with Killer on this one.." Cross said. "He'll kill us for sure if he finds us here!"

"Nightmare won't be back for another 20 minutes.." Horror answered, zoned out as he looked in the closet, finding nothing more then a bunch of black hoodies. "Error went with him. So they're probably destroying an au."

"Besides, how many chances to sneak around will we get?" Dust asked with a smirk, accidentally knocking off a picture with the gang on it. Killer was quick to catch it with blue magic, placing it back on the table.

"Be careful will ya?!"

Dust rolled his eyes as he continued looking through the drawers. 

Cross whined. "Nightmare will be mad.."

"Nightmare doesn't have to know." Horror moved from the closet (after making sure everything was in place) and walked over to his bed, checking it. "Besides. He knows everything about us. All we know about him is that he is the guardian of negativity and that he and Dream are brothers, and even that he didn't tell us himself."

That had happened long ago. Dream had pleaded and begged, something none of them ever saw, for Nightmare to change, because he wanted his brother back. While Dream had given up on that, Dust and Killer could still see the pain in his eyes whenever he and Nightmare fought. They could regonize because they had killed their own brother. They had felt the exact same way. 

Yet they still hated Dream more then anything.

Dust sighed, annoyed, closing the drawers. "I can't find anything." His eyes fell on the picture on the table. It was a picture of the gang, Fresh and Error included, all together. The only sentimental thing in the room. He smiled softly.

Horror was about to give up, when he noticed a tiny crack under the bed. There was something..

"Guys, look!" Horror said, voice softer as he tried to push away the bed. Which made Killer freak out.

"Are you crazy?! What if you scratch the bed or floor, Nightmare will kill us!" 

Dust was already helping Horror push the bed.

Killer sighed. "Come on, Cross. Lets go-"

But curiosity had gotten the best of him, and Cross walked inside, before trying to help them.

Killer looked surprised, then annoyed. "Nope! I'm not being a part of this!" He walked away, downstairs.

The three of them together finally managed to push of the bed. When looking closely, Horror saw that there was a plank in the floor that could easily be moved.

"A hidden cabinet?" Cross sounded just as curious as they did. Dust nodded, summoning a knife, before gently nudging the edge of the wooden plank, trying to lift it up. Once the plank was a bit up, his knife disappeared, and he moved away the plank. A lot of dust flew up.

"Whoa.."

There was a small hole. Inside, there was some..

...

What..?

Inside, was a beautiful, golden crown, looking just like the one Dream had, exept it had a crescent moon in the middle. There was a lot of dust on it, showing that it had been in there for a long time. 

Carefully, Horror picked it up. "Whoa.."

"Who's.. is that..?" Dust asked slowely, admiring the crown from a distance. 

"Look!" Cross stuck his hand inside the hidden cabinet, before pulling something out of it.

A piece of paper..?

No. A picture.

Cross held the picture in front off all three of them.

On the picture, was.. Dream..? Even shorter then now, which seemed impossible. While still looking extremely young now, in the picture he looked like an actual child. But, he was hugging someone..

A skeleton, one that looked just like him. Except, he was wearing the crown Horror had found, and he had violet eyelights. He was wearing the same jacket Dream wore, except it was purple, a white shirt and a golden belt that said "NM" on it. He was wearing long, black pants, and a pair of purple boots, looking just like the ones Dream was wearing. In the background, there was a large tree, filled with golden and black apples, and a village even further. The sky was a bright blue, a couple clouds in the background. Dream was hugging the skeleton, such a bright smile on his face, they had never seen him smile like that.. that smile seemed full of life, and.. real. The second skeleton was hugging him aswel, smiling softer, gentler, but still as real and happy.

Horror looked from the picture to the crown, then at the picture again. "Who.. who's that?"

"He looks just like Dream, except purple?" Dust commented.

"Nightmare doesn't have another brother besides Dream, does he?" Cross asked, sounding hesitant. Knowing Nightmare, he could have just hidden that.

"Maybe Killer knows?"

"Lets just.. put the bed back before Nightmare comes back." Horror said, the other two agreeing. 

Horror quickly teleported with the crown and the picture, hiding them in his room, before coming back to help. Cross had cleaned all the dust while Dust had put the plank back in its place, now both were trying to push the bed back. Horror quickly walked over to help, before all three of them walked outside, closing the door softly, and going back to the living room. Killer had been reading a book, before he looked up.

"Told you you'll find nothing."

"Actually.."

Killer knew that tone. He sighed, putting his book away, before turning to face them. "What did you do?'

"We found two things under his bed.." Dust said.

"Both were covered in dust, so it hasn't been touched for a long time.." Horror continued.

"But we found a crown, looking like Dream's, except it has a moon in the middle. And a picture, of again, Dream, but some other skeleton wearing the crown." Cross finished.

Killer started to get curious, getting up. "Can I see?"

Before they could answer, a portal opened right besides them, Error and Nightmare stepping through, both looking tired.

"Stupid Ink..." Nightmare grumbled under his breath. The others looked sympathetically. "It failed, didn't it?"

"I-if t-ThAt i-iDiOt waSn'T t-tHerE, wE w-woUldn'T haVe f-faIlEd!" Error sighed, annoyed, dropping himself on the couch.

"He has been more protective of the au's for whatever reason." Nightmare shrugged. He quickly noticed how tense the rest of the gang became. "..did Horror set the kitchen on fire again?"

Horror pouted. "That hadn't my fault!"

Thank god all of them were a Sans, all having practiced with lying. Sure, Nightmare was scarier then Papyrus, but still. 

The rest of the day went on without Nightmare suspecting a thing. After Error left, Nightmare told them all it was time for bed. The gang had pouted, saying that was not fair, but all had gone to sleep.

After Nightmare fell asleep aswel, he was woken up in the middle of the night, by the sound of something sneaking past his room. But once feeling it was Dust and Cross, he sighed, dropping himself back in the bed, too tired to check. They probably had wanted a midnight snack. They wanted that sometimes. 

He was about to fall asleep, when he felt four different aura's in Killer's room.

~~~

"Be quiet will ya?!" Horror whisperd angrily at Dust, who had accidently tripped over a forgotten knife on the ground. Horror was holding the crown and picture close. Cross seemed worried, gently knocking on Killer's door.

"Kills..?"

They had a hidden groupchat from Nightmare, one he didn't know about. And Killer just texted them, telling them to come to his room, taking the mysterious items with them.

It didn't take two seconds before his door went open as silent as it could, creaking a tiny bit, which the others cringed about. Killer peaked outside. "Come, quick!"

They did so without protest. Once they were inside, all on the ground in a circle, Killer looked annoyed. "You all are idiots."

"Why?"

"You can teleport?"

...

They all suddenly wanted to slap themselfs. How had they forgotten that?

"Anyway." Killer continued. "I got curious. What did you find?"

The other three send knowing grins, but Horror handed him the crown and picture anyway. Killer studied them closely.

...

"I can regonize Dream's magic still in the crown." Killer said, the other skeletons tensing at hearing that.

"You mean he's spying on us?!" Cross said softly, sounding panicked as he hugged Horror, who threw a protective arm around the youngest. Killer shook skull. "No. I can just feel a tiny bit of his aura, a sort of relaxing feeling, even calming."

The others looked confused, before Dust carefully touched the crown. He could indeed feel a tiny bit of positivity. His expresion turned into a scowl. He didn't think he could have hated the guardian more..

"Maybe Dream did that for the skeleton in the picture?" Cross softly spoke, letting go of Horror.

"Maybe? But why?" Killer asked.

"We thought.. maybe.. Nightmare has another sibling he didn't tell us about?" Horror spoke hesitantly. They all seemed confused, staring at the picture, until-

"What are you all doing up so late?"

They all jumped and screetched at the sudden voice, clinging to each other. The picture and crown falling on the ground. They all looked surprised at Nightmare.

"Nightmare!"

"That wasn't funny."

Nightmare rolled his eye. "What are you all doing here-"

?!

His eye went wide in shock once seeing the crown and picture, suddenly attacked by memories as his body went stiff. That certainly wasn't the reaction the gang had been expecting, slowely letting go of each other.

...

Eyes not leaving the objects once, Nightmare dropped on his knees.

?!

"Nightmare?!" Killer gasped in shock, clearly not having expected that. Neither did the others. Nightmare didn't say a word. With shaking arms, they slowely wandered to the crown, picking it up slowely and gently, as if it would shatter by his touch. The crown was shaking in his hold, and his eye became softer.

"...where did you find this..?" His voice was full of emotion, not looking away from the crown.

"..." the gang didn't say a word, too afraid of his reaction.

Nightmare was silent, waiting for a reply. When no one answered, Horror sighed. "Please don't be mad.."

Dust continued. "You.. y-you know everything about us.. but we know nothing about you.. we.. we were curious.. so.. we.. w-we.."

...

"We snuck around in your room."

...

Nightmare sighed. "No need to be afraid.. I.. I understand.. I would have done the same thing.. probably.."

Surprised, but they all relaxed, becoming less tense. Nightmare moved a bit, to sit more comfortably on the ground, slowely picking up the picture, looking at it with an eye filled with emotion. The gang didn't say a word.

After a couple more minutes of silence, Killer was the first one to speak. "Nightmare.. who is that..?"

Nightmare couldn't say he hadn't expected it. Ofcourse they would be curious about him at some point. It was normal. Still, these were painful memories to recall.

After more silence, he slowely answered.

"....thats... me... what I used to look like.."

Killer chocked on his breath, Dust and Cross gasped in shock while Horror was staring at him in shocked silence.

"Thats.. thats _you?!"_ Killer chocked out in shock.

"You.. you have bones?!"

"Where is the goop!?"

"Your eyes! They're such a pretty violet!"

"What happened to you?"

Killer's question got everyone silent, all eyes on him.

"..you used to look like us.." Killer started. "And.. I can see you and Dream were close... what happened to you to become.. this?" He pointed at Nightmare's goopy form.

Nightmare sighed. That.. that was a painful memory to recall. But.. they deserved to know..

"..I.. I can't remember clearly." Nightmare admitted. Everyone leaned in closer, holding their breath as they listened. Nightmare sighed. "Its all a blurr.. but.. I remember.. I can tell you what I remember.."

He sighed again. "I.. I wasn't treated nicely. Like now. My brother, Dream, was loved and adored for being the guardian of positivity. But I was hated and bad, for being the guardian of negativity. I was bullied.. even abused.." he looked away. Killer's expresion was impossible to read, Horror seemed slowely turning angry.

"And Dream did nothing?" He asked with clenched fists.

"He didn't know." Nightmare quickly added. "I never told him. He did find out at some point, and.. I.. I can't remember.." his voice sounded pained. After eating the black apple, every single memory became a blurr. Almost every single positive memory gone.

Not like he had many in the first place.

Dust gently squeezed Horror's hand to calm him, nodding his head for Nightmare to continue.

"We guarded the tree. Our mother. Everyday, we would put a barrier around the tree of feelings, so that no one could get near or hurt it." Nightmare's expresion became sadder. "Eating one of the apples, gold or black, could kill you. One day.. I couldn't take it anymore.. I ate one of the black apples."

Killer was the first to realize what Nightmare meant, eyelights going out in horror.

"You were trying to die.." he whisperd in horror, making the others freeze.

...

Nightmare looked away, and silently nodded.

"I thought it would kill me. It didn't. It corrupted me, making me lose my sanity for years. While I have it back now, I can't remember anything from.. that time.." his voice broke. The gang realized with a jolt, that during that time, Nightmare had been alone, and had tried to.. end it..

Without another word, all off them hugged him tightly. Nightmare smiled softly.

"Dream had made this crown for me." He said. "The energetic sun to its gentle moon." He chuckled. "The crown Dream is wearing, is made by me. It had been a birthday gift. I didn't know he had made one for me aswel." He smiled softly at the memory.

The gang had been silent the entire time of the story, before Cross said something, his voice breaking. "Nightmare.. we're so sorry.." he hiccuped softly, tears streaming down his cheekbones.

Nightmare's eye softend, gently stroking his skull. "Shhh.." he hugged them all close. 

...

"Thank you for telling us.." they all fell into comfortable silence after that.

Several minutes of comfort later, Dust spoke again. "..did Dream try to help you?"

Nightmare was silent. "..I don't know.. I can't remember.. all my memories are a blurr-" he froze with an idea. The gang looked up, confused.

Just like how Dream could see everyone's positive memories, Nightmare could see everyone's negative memories. Maybe.. using that.. he could see what happened?

...

"I have a way to find out.."

The gang nodded, slowely pulling away. Nightmare focused on Dream, and on all negative emotions. It had been a while since he had done this, but he managed.

A big, purple orb appeared in Nightmare's palm. Dream's negative memories. Nightmare's eye went wide. For that orb to be that big.. for his emotions to be this negative.. that wasn't normal..

And how?! His aura was always positive!

Nightmare sighed. Before starting to explain. "These are Dream's negative memories. Touching this orb, we can see his negative memories.. I'm not sure if you will be able to see it aswel, but it I focus on the date, I can.. see from his point of view what happened that day.. atleast, if that was a negative memory.."

They all looked concerned. "Are you sure, Nightmare?"

Nightmare was hesitant at first, afraid. What if Dream hated him..? What if he couldn't find the memory?

But then, he decided. He needed to know the truth, no matter what it was. Silently, he nodded. "I.. I just.. I need to know.." maybe, he could get some relief from his past..

Or it would be worse.

They all nodded, Cross hugging his one side, Dust gently squeezing his hand while the other two had soft looks on their face. Slowely, Nightmare placed a single finger on the orb. "Grab each other's hands." 

They all nodded, doing just that.

Another gentle deep breath, before finding the courage.

"The day I corrupted."

The room started to shift and spin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story was suposed to be only one chapter.. but I got too carried away and made an entire story XD
> 
> English is not my first language (or autocorrect ruins my life) so if you see any mistakes, please don't hesitate to tell me!


	2. Meet the villagers!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternate universe: Dreamtale  
> Billions of years ago..
> 
> The day Nightmare corrupted, from Dream's point of view.

**Alternate universe: Dreamtale**

**Thousands of years ago..**

...

"Uuuuugghh.."

"What just happened.."

"Let me sleeeeeeepp.."

Horror didn't know what just happened, but he didn't really care. He was tired. He wanted to sleep. So he didn't move his body, didn't open his eyes, just layed his skull in the grass.

...

Wait-

Grass?!

His eyesockets shot open, being greeted by a bright, light blue sky, with the brightest sun he had ever seen, clouds drifting by as birds were chirping from the trees.

Horror shot up. "Guys! Wake up!"

Killer already was up, looking just as shocked as Horror did, trying to shake Dust awake. Looking around, Horror saw Cross besides him, trying to open his eyesockets. Looking around once more, he found Nightmare.

Nightmare was already up, standing, not effected by.. whatever just happened. With his back turned to the gang, he was looking at.. a village? 

Wait..

They were on a hill. A high one. 

And in a distance, was a village visible. 

Once Dust and Cross managed to open their eyes, did they get up. "Where are we?" Cross asked.

Already, all off them looked at Nightmare. The guardian turned to face them, holding the crown in his hands.

"This is my au.. or, well, what it used to be."

...

Oh yeah!

Finally, they managed to remember that this was a memory. Dream's memory. The day Nightmare corrupted. 

"How come we passed out..?" Killer asked, not having expected that. Nightmare shrugged.

"Probably because you're not a guardian." He was looking around, searching for something.

"If this is a memory.." Dust walked over to one of the trees, before holding his arm out. It went right through.

His eyelights took stars. "Cool!" Killer and Horror chuckled at his excitement. Only Cross seemed to notice Nightmare was looking for something.

"Nightmare? What are you searching for?"

"Dream." Nightmare answered simply. At that, the others went silent.

I mean..

This _was_ **Dream's** memory..

...

They all turned around when they noticed it. Running. And there he was-

Dream, atleast 7 thousand years younger. He was even shorter then he was now, which the gang found amusing. His clothes seemed much newer, boots shinier, though he was now wearing short sleeves instead of the long ones he usually wore. His crown and cape were there, though the cape looked way too big on him. He didn't have dark bags under his eyes like he did now, but still had the same face, still looking like a child. He had a small bottle in his hands, and he stopped his running for a second to breathe.

"I.. _*huff*_ don't they have healers for this stuff?" Dream breathed to himself, looking annoyed. Seriously, why did he keep healing those villagers? Sure, his magic was positive, that didn't mean he could heal the sick! That was what healers were for!

_'Don't complain.'_ Dream thought, which shocked the gang. _'Its for Nighty. Its worth it. Just hold on a bit longer..'_

Dream walked right through Killer, who made a face at that. Dream stood where Nightmare previously did, and smiled. The village! He cheered silently to himself-

Before just jumping of, finding small edges on the hill to stand on, getting down, before continuing his run.

...

"How did we hear what he was thinking?!" Horror asked, not having expected that.

"His memory. His thoughts." Nightmare said absently. Why did Dream think this was for him..?

Dust and Cross were snickering. "Nighty?" 

Nightmare sighed heavilly at his childhood nickname, turning to send them an annoyed look. "Oh, how funny." He rolled his eye.

Before they had any time to comment, the scenery shifted, and the gang were suddenly in the village they just looked at. Nightmare flinched. He had never liked this village..

There were all sorts of monsters here- most of them were bears and bunnies. But, what also lived here, were humans. Lots of them in fact.

"Humans and monsters lived _together_?" Killer asked in disbelief.

"The war never happened in my au, remember-?"

"What is taking him so long!?" One of the bunnies besides them asked a human. "He left 15 minutes ago!"

"I think its black magic. That "guardian" must have done something to him!" The human cried out. Another human rolled their eyes.

"That skeleton is an idiot, I'm telling you. I bet he got lost on the way back!"

"I'M BACK!" They all heard Dream yell, running towards the bunny, panting and weezing heavilly.

"Geez, you sure took your time." The bunny spat, taking the bottle out of his hands, not even saying thank you. Dream couldn't answer, way too busy trying to catch his breath.

_What._

Nightmare was shocked. They.. they had been talking about Dream? But.. why were they acting as if Dream was him?

_'Not even a thank you?'_ Dream still had a kind smile on his face, but his thoughts were anything but kind.

"I'll be going now-" Dream started, already turning around, when another villager called him. "Dream!"

' _I swear if they want me to run into the forest for another healing potion-"_

Dream turned around to face the human, smiling kindly. "Yeah?"

"My daughter. She ate too much sweets and now is sick." The human started. "Heal her."

_Heal her._

_Not even a question. A command._

Nightmare didn't know what to say. Dream kept calling these people his friends?! This is not what friends do!

_'But my magic can't heal sick people..'_ Dream thought sadly. He sighed. Not like the villagers would listen. They would blame his twin again. Sure, they would get angry at Dream once he couldn't heal the girl, but he much rather have the villagers be mad at him then that they beat Nightmare again.

"Ofcourse!" Dream smiled brightly, following the villager as fast as he could.

Meanwhile, the gang was speechless. "...you were beaten?" Killer's voice was empty, not even anger in his voice anymore. Nightmare, on the other hand, couldn't remember Dream ever finding out about that.

Was that just.. gone? Deleted out of his memory, just like the rest?

"These villagers are jerks." Dust crossed his arms. He hadn't expected them to just use Dream like that. None of them did.

Easily, an hour passed, Dream running from one house to the other, trying to help as much as he could, half off the villagers getting angry about that it was not enough. Which Nightmare found, that made him mad.

He knew almost all his memories were gone.. but he certainly would remember this. Dream never told him this.

Another hour later was when they were all _finally_ satisfied. They all smiled, not even thanking him.

The guardian of positivity looked tired, panting slighty, just evidence of how much magic he had used. But he couldn't say no. He couldn't.. they would hurt Nightmare again if he did. He couldn't let that happen..

Dream smiled kindly at the villagers, and waved. "Bye!" He turned around, about to leave again, before the same human who had believed in black magic called him.

"Oh Dream!"

_Seriously._

Dream turned around, smile just a bit wider. "Yes?"

"I was wondering if Nightmare could come over later?" The human smiled kindly, but Dream tensed.

_Do they think I'm stupid?_

"I can ask him!~" Dream said cheerfully, and the human's smile brightend. "Thank you!!!!!" 

?!

That was the first time a villager had thanked him..

The human left without a word. Dream was speechless. But he turned around, starting to leave. Well.. tried to.

A lott of these villagers were talking about black magic for whatever reason.. Dream had been ignoring it, until he heard his brother's name.

"Nightmare is using black magic on him, I'm telling you!" A bunny whispered to another villager, sadness in their voice. "Why else would Dream attack us? Its not like we did anything wrong! That monster must have done someth-"

**_"Excuse me?"_ **

Both villagers jumped at Dream's sudden appearance, who now had a giant smile on his face, eyelights gone. It was shocking to see the guardian of positivity this scary..

**_"I'm afraid I didn't hear you right. What were you calling my brother again?"_ **

Both villagers gulped. "N-nothing!" They ran away before Dream could say anything else.

Dream's eyelights returned, and he allowed his smile to fall for just a second, sighing.

_"I swear.."_

His smile returned, and he started walking towards where the tree was suposed to be.

_"A spider could do more damage then Nightmare can."_

Dream sighed, all signs off annoyance disappearing when he stood in front of the tree.

He could finally spend some time with Nightmare atleast.

And eat. He felt really lightheaded from all the magic he used. 

~~~

...

Nightmare didn't know what to say. At first, was anger. An anger he hadn't known for a long time. A protective anger he only had for his brother. And the fact that this had actually happened.. but Dream never told him..

Perhaps the smaller skeleton was sharper then he looked.

The second emotion was confusion once the human asked Dream if Nightmare could spend some time with them. Hearing his brother's thoughts.. Dream definitely didn't send him. No way. Not with what he had been thinking.

Last was his strongest emotion: shock. Shock from that Dream knew. He _knew._ The scary way he had looked when some villagers just called him a monster- not near as bad as the other things he had been called. Yet.. had Dream always been this protective? 

And what did he mean by that he was doing this for Nightmare..?

Meanwhile, the gang was looking at the tree in awe. Well, Cross and Dust were. Horror was wondering how the apples had those colours and didn't rot. Killer was just uninterested.

"So, the positive apples give us positive feelings, right?" Dust asked. "And the black apples give us negative feelings?"

Nightmare nodded. "We used to guard this tree, guarding the emotions. But well.. people don't like negative emotions that much.."

Cross was besides him within a second, hugging him, which Nightmare smiled at, gently petting his skull. He looked at the rest. "Though.. I'm still curious about how positive emotions didn't die. I destroyed the tree.." he sadly looked at his mother, apologizing in his head.

_"I'm so sorry mother.."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> English is not my first language (or autocorrect ruins my life) so if you see any mistakes, please don't hesitate to tell me!


	3. Passive Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to meet passive Nightmare..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Credits to BookwyrmFinallyGotAnAccount for the inspiration they gave me for this chapter!

Dream took a second to look at the tree, a (real) smile appearing on his face. "Hello mother..!" He hugged the tree.

He knew that the tree couldn't hear or feel anything, but you never knew! He could be nice to the person that created them!

...

Thing. The tree is not a person.

Dream kinda became confused, but chuckled at himself. He placed his hand on the trunk of the tree, before tracing a triangle on it with his hands. It lit up gold, before spinning, and suddenly turning into a door. Dream smiled.

They couldn't live in the village. But they also couldn't be homeless. In order to be able to look after the tree at all times and be safe, this was their home. An invisible door on the tree that no one except the guardians could open. The tree regonized their magic, and the door would only open for the twins. 

Dream waved again, before walking through. The "door" disappeared not a second later.

~~~

"....Is he hugging a tree?" Killer was doing his best not to burst out laughing, but he was chuckling anyway. The guardian of positivity, the warrior they always fought for life and death, one of their biggest enemies, used to be an innocent little bean? 

Cross and Dust had failed to hide their laughter, finding it hilarious. Horror had mixed feelings. This was their enemy, afterall.

"Thats our mother."

"Your mother is a tree?"

"Yes."

Killer was having trouble keeping his laughter, but Horror found it hilarious, starting to laugh thanks to Cross and Dust.

But Nightmare wasn't looking at them. He was looking at Dream with a fond look in his eye. He had almost forgotten what Dream used to be like in their childhood. If he were to imagen Dream, all he would see was a fighter. A warior. A protector. Nightmare couldn't believe he almost forgat.. this..

 _"..What even happened for Dream to change like that?"_ Nightmare thought to himself. He was dragged out of his thoughts when the rest of the gang gasped in shock as the "door" opened. 

"What is _that_?!" Dust gasped out.

"Our old home." Nightmare answered, having almost forgotten that himself. 

"Dust, we're talking skeletons with magic who can create _actual_ portals to travel to different _universes_ , and you're shocked by a magic door?" Killer seemed unimpressed.

"You seemed just as surprised as we all did!"

~~~

The first thing after walking through the "door" was a bit of golden light, Dream's colour, the tree showing it regonized the guardian. Next, once the light faded away, there was another door on the side off the hall. The walls were white, the floors were a soft shade of brown. Walking a tiny bit, another door, and he was in the living room.

The living room had white walls with patterns on them, on the floor was a big, golden and purple carpet. There were two couches, both a light shade of brown, with darker brown cushions on it. On one of the couches, was a small skeleton, a bit taller then Dream, wearing the exact same clothes Dream was wearing. But his suit was purple, a golden belt that had "NM" on it, a black pair of pants, purple boots, and violet eyelights.

_He wore the exact same crown the gang had found._

Right now, he was curled up on the couch, reading. And Dream could tell he was _actually_ reading, and not thinking about the villagers. Which made him smile softly, before running over.

"Brother!~"

"Drea- oof! Dream!" The younger version of Nightmare cried out as Dream just threw himself on top of him. Dream was giggling, quickly wrapping his arms around his middle.

Nightmare's annoyance disappeared after a minute, chuckling to himself as he put his book down to hug his twin. "Nice to see you too, Dreamy." His voice was much softer then the Nightmare now, almost sounding identical to Dream's voice.

Then again, they were identical twins..

~~~

 _"THATS **YOU?!"** _All off the gang gasped out in shock. Even though they had known, it was shocking to actually _see_ the old- erhm, young Nightmare.

"You have _two_ eyes!! What happened to the other one?!"

"They're such a pretty violet!"

"HOW?!"

But soon enough, their shock was melting. All observing the skeleton.

"...thats a lot of purple. And you're tiny."

"I noticed Dust, thanks." Nightmare rolled his eye. But Dust seemed curious.

"Do you like purple or-?"

"I was made with those clothes on." Nightmare looked annoyed at Dust, who was observing the passive Nightmare.

"I could have just picked you up. Holy crap." Killer seemed amazed at how tiny Nightmare was. Passive Nightmare was much, much shorter then them.

"I get it Killer, I was small." Nightmare's huff off annoyance made him chuckle.

The other two were shrieking over the small skeleton.

"You look just like a purple version of Dream!"

"You're so cute!!!!" Both of Cross and Dust's eyelights had shaped into stars. Nightmare chuckled at them. 

"Are you sure Nightmare is the adorable one?" Killer laughed good heartedly. When the other two looked confused, Killer pointed at his eyes. Both skeletons looked at each other, before their eyelights turned back to normal. The other three were chuckling.

"Seriously though, Nightmare, you look like a little bea-"

"Finish that sentence and I will kill you." Nightmare sounded dangerous and scary when saying that. But a cyan blush was growing on his cheekbones and Dust just couldn't take him serious like that. He wished he had his phone. But oh well. Everyone was seeing this and that was enough. Not like he would ever forget.

~~~

When Dream didn't let go of him, even after two minutes passed, Nightmare started to get worried, his eyes starting to show concern. "Dream? Did something happen?"

Dream shook his head, burying his skull into his chest. "I just missed you, Nighty."

...

Nightmare allowed himself to smile once he couldn't feel any negativity from his twin. But he frowned once he felt how weak the other's magic was. "Did you overuse your magic?"

Dream tried to answer, but he was too relaxed to do so, so he just gave an exhausted hum instead. Nightmare sighed, gently rubbing his skull.

"Dream.. this isn't the first time.." he sounded worried. "Why do you keep overusing your magic?"

_"To keep you safe."_

"The villagers are just really clumsy.." Dream mumbled. Nightmare's soft expresion turned into a scowl for a second. God, he hated those villagers. Though they have been leaving him alone for a while now..

He still hated them. 

Nightmare silently tried to sit up, before placing his brother on the couch. Dream looked up, confused. 

"You're obviously tired, brother." Nightmare gave a gentle smile. "You just rest. You work too hard anyway- I can warm you up some lunch real quick."

Dream never showed up for lunch anyway, which is why Nightmare hadn't eaten either.

Dream smiled back, sitting up. "Sounds good Nighty.."

Nightmare smirked. "Adorable~" he walked away before Dream could give any reaction.

It took Dream a minute to progress what his brother just said. 

"I AM NOT ADORABLE!"

"YES YOU ARE!"

Dream huffed, throwing himself on the couch. He wasn't adorable! 

...

Okay. He looked like a child, he agreed on that. And he acted like a child- ldbeksjb but he was a child, how else was he supposed to act? Old and boring like Nightmare?

...

Dream frowned as he remembered the request from the human earlier. There was no way that he was sending Nightmare to the village, he wasn't stupid. And Nightmare felt fine now, Dream could feel positivity from the guardian, even if it was a small amount. But it was there. And it became more each day. And if Dream being exhausted each day meant Nightmare being happy, he would do it.

Obviously, he wasn't going to risk sending Nightmare to the village. He had finally started to get better, happier! 

...

What if Dream went there himself? 

Dream knew there was no hope of the villagers getting better, each and single one of them were extremely greedy. But Dream was kinda curious about what the human had wanted. 

Yeah. Dream could go there himself.

Once he didn't feel like passing out. Dream leaned one arm against the couch, with the other he grabbed his spinning head. Had the living room always been.. colourful? Dream felt dizzy just by looking at it.

"Dream?" Dream looked up at his twin, who now had a worried expresion on his face again.

"Your negativity got worse, are you okay?" Nightmare softly set the two plates of pancakes- Dream's favorite food- on the table. Dream felt like throwing up just by looking at it. Probably because he had skipped both breakfast and lunch, and overused his magic after.

"Hm. Yeah. Sorry Nighty. I remembered that I have to go back to the village later.." Nightmare looked sad the moment Dream said that. He hated those people..

He got pulled into a hug by Dream. "Its okay.." Dream could read his mind, couldn't he? Nightmare smiled as Dream already had sensed his insecurities, and hugged him back. 

"Sooo.. how about an extremely late lunch?" Dream looked up. "You waited for me?"

"Well, yeah. I wasn't going to eat without you. That would be rude."

Dream felt like tearing up just by hearing that. Nightmare was way too kind. How could anyone say Nightmare was evil?

An actual smile appeared on his face again, cuddling closer to him. "Thank you brother..!~"

Nightmare chuckled softly, nuzzling his skull.

~~~

...

Horror wanted to throw up rainbows. God, that was adorable. Just.. adorable. He had never thought he'll see the twins getting along. But here they were.

"How come we were able to see this part of the memory?" Killer asked, confused. "This isn't a negative memory."

"It can either be because its connected or has something to do with the negative memory, or that he gets sad when thinking about it." Nightmare explained. People could get sad by happy memories. It was a possibility that could be it.

 _"Even then Nightmare was like a dad- erhm, brother."_ Dust laughed silently to himself. Cross'es eyes were sparkling. 

Nightmare used to be a little bean?

"Nighty? Did Dream just think you were old and boring?" Horror chuckled, both at the nickname and the thought. Welp. Dream wasn't completely wrong. Nightmare rolled his eye. Nightmare was just scanning over the scene. He still didn't understand what Dream overusing his magic had to do with keeping him safe. 

But he could find out.

.....

He hadn't noticed his big brother instincts were coming back to him...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this story is the favorite I have written so far! I can't wait to continue!
> 
> English is not my first language (or autocorrect ruins my life) so if you see any mistakes, please don't hesitate to tell me!


	4. Fear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both Dream and Nightmare are paranoid about Dream going back..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter did not want to be written- I have deleted and re-wrote it atleast 4 times. QwQ

"Do you have everything? Enough magic? Are you hungry?" Nightmare fretted over his twin, obviously very much against the idea of sending Dream back, trying to keep him home as much as he could. Honestly, Dream didn't want to go either. He ~~hated~~ didn't like the villagers. 

_"You can't hate people! Thats not a positive emotion!"_

Dream smiled gently at his brother to asure him. "Yes, Nightmare, I'm _fine,_ I promise!"

Nightmare still didn't seem like he wanted to let go.

Dream couldn't blame him.

He didn't want to let go either.

But he needed to know what that human had wanted from his brother! There was no way they would hurt Dream, afterall!

...how naive he was.

Dream was still feeling paranoid. 

_"What if they go to Nightmare when I'm not here?! What if I can't protect him?!"_

Dream had such a bad feeling in his stomach, and that feeling kept getting heavier, stronger, something was wrong. He took a deep breath.

"...Nightmare?"

Nightmare looked up at Dream, not missing how much smaller his voice sounded. As if he was scared. Nightmare understood the feeling.

...he was scared too.

Both of them were..

"N-Nighty.." Nightmare didn't like the way negative emotions started to grow around his twin, his usual bright eyelights suddenly becoming dull. With shaky arms, Dream put his hands on Nightmare's shoulder.

A flashback he couldn't stop made him scared.

**_"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"_ **

**_"He's a monster! He's evil!"_ **

**_"WHAT HAS HE DONE TO BE EVIL?!"_ **

**_"He corrupted you with his evil spells!"_ **

Dream took in a sharp breath, not wanting to remember that day. The way he had screamed at his so-called friends, the things those people said about his brother, the way Nightmare's bones had been bruised and broken and bleeding as he lay motionlessly in his arms-

Dream flinched. No. Never again.

His negative emotions grew once again, and suddenly Nightmare was pulling him into a hug, letting Dream hide from the world, even if it was for just a couple seconds. Dream didn't waste a second, quickly hugging his brother back tightly as his bones shook. 

"Promise me. Promise me you will stay inside."

"Dream.."

"Please, Nightmare." Dream begged, burying his face in Nightmare's shoulder. He could feel Nightmare doing the same, hugging gentler.

Sure, Nightmare got stronger from negative emotions, that didn't mean he wanted Dream to be this worried, let alone over him.

Not like he needed to go outside..

...

Nightmare sighed. "..okay. I promise I'll stay inside." He hugged Dream closer, gentler, just holding him protectively as Dream melted into the embrace. Relief filled his soul, and Dream could breathe again. 

"Thank you, brother.." 

Nightmare hummed, not saying anything else. That was fine.

After a couple minutes of hugging, Dream pulled away once again. He smiled gently at Nightmare.

"I'll be fine, Night. They don’t hurt me, remember?"

Nightmare seemed to be thinking. Well... yeah.. Dream gave them happiness.. they wouldn't hurt him...

"..okay.." _finally,_ Nightmare smiled back, accepting that Dream would be fine. Dream's smile brightend.

"I'll bring you some chocolate from the village!"

"No need, Dream." Nightmare shrugged. "We have enough chocolate."

"More chocolate!~"

"So that I can make pancakes for you?"

...

Dream grinned. "Maybe.."

He earned a chuckle from his twin. "Sure, you can get some chocolate."

His smile brightend once again, and his eyelights turned into stars. "Thank you!"

_Adorable._

Another hug. "Bye Nighty! Love you!"

"Love you too Dreamy." Nightmare hugged back.

Dream pulled away, and opened the door. Instead of showing outside, the door was glowing gold again. Dream walked through, and the glow dimmed, becoming a white glow instead. When Nightmare touched the door to close it, the glow became violet. He closed the door.

Outside, a magical door opened on the tree, and the little guardian stepped through. The moment Dream was outside, the door disappeared once again. Dream looked up at the village, the glow in his eyes dimming a bit.

He really did not want to go..

But he needed to! 

Gritting his teeth, Dream ~~very slowely~~ started to walk towards the village. ~~~~

.....little did he know, that was the last hug he would ever give his brother ever again..

* * *

"..is it just me, or is Dream very clingy?" Dust asked, crossing his arms, watching as the small guardian was talking to passive Nightmare.

"Not clingy. Scared." Killer corrected. "He obviously knows of the abuse, if you payed attention to his thoughts. He's scared something will happen to Nightmare.. I mean, it did, but you get what I mean."

"But.. what did he mean with that he can't hate people?" Cross asked, concern in his eyes. "I get that he's the guardian of positivity, but that doesn't mean he has to be positive all the time. Nightmare isn't negative all the time either.. right?" The small skeleton looked at Nightmare. Nightmare was about to answer, when-

The memory stopped for just a second.

They weren't in the house anymore.

They were.. outside? 

The tree. Lots of villagers-

_**"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"** _

All of the gang froze as a memory was played _inside_ the memory, meaning Dream was having a flasback. They quickly looked around.

Bloody bats, sticks, axes, a _certain purple skeleton covered in red-_

 ** _"He's a monster! He's evil!"_** One of the humans yelled, trying to justify their actions. No.. that was impossible..

Dream was looking _outraged._ Even the gold in his eyelights were darker as he pushed the human away.

**_"WHAT HAS HE DONE TO BE EVIL?!"_ **

**_"He has corrupted you with his evil spells!"_ **

And just like that, Dream was talking with Nightmare again.

"...what was _that?!"_ Dust cried out, the others way too shocked to say anything.

"....a flashback.."

Suddenly, they all understood why Dream was so scared. 

...

Nightmare felt relief grow in his soul once he felt Dream's emotions stabilize after the younger version of him comforted him. Atleast he had been able to help Dream in _some_ way.. it made him more relaxed to know Dream was okayish now.

"We're leaving." Killer sighed, watching as Dream started to walk back to the village, looking back now and then at the tree.

It broke Nightmare's heart to see Dream so worried about him, out of all people, worried about Nightmare, scared even, that even the smallest thing could happen to his twin. So paranoid, scared, unsure of everything and double checking everything, just to make sure Nightmare was okay. Doing everything in his power, just to make sure Nightmare was safe. 

But Nightmare felt his heart completely shatter once he rememberd, that this was supposed to be the day he corrupted. Dream's fears would actually come true.

Nightmare sighed. He looked over at the gang, who were watching Dream. Noticing the pained look Killer had on his face, it was safe to say, Killer had realized aswel. 

They may be enemies.. but Killer still couldn't help but feel bad. It was obvious how hard Dream was trying to keep Nightmare safe, and knowing that the other twin would just.. Killer shook his head.

"We're in the village again." Horror didn't sound too happy about it, watching the villagers with an annoyed expresion on his face. The moment they noticed the guardian, they aproached him, but thank god Dream pushed them away for once. 

One of the villagers- a bunny, not the same human as before, waved at him.

"Oh Dream!"

They started watching them in annoyance, now what? 

"You came for Kate, right? One of her daughters needed help at school, so she asked me to talk with you until she came back!"

The bunny smiled, leading him inside.

......this bunny obviously didn't know they had been waiting for Nightmare instead...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry if this chapter seems rushed or bad, it just didn't want to he written for some reason QwQ
> 
> This chapter was supposed to be much longer, but I realized I won't get far, so I shortened it. Hopefully the next chapter will be a bit better-
> 
> Sorry in advance if I'm late with updates, as school is trying to kill me, which is also why my brain broke and writing is hard QwQ
> 
> English is not my first language (or autocorrect ruins my life) so if you see any mistakes, please don't hesitate to tell me!


	5. Poisoned tea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a small visit to the human. How bad could it be?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **IMPORTANT**
> 
> **This chapter is inspired by: TheGrinningKitten, and I really recomend checking them out! (I sadly do not know how to put links- does anyone know?) But you can find them on DeviantArt!**
> 
> Ohhhh oh oh ohhhh..
> 
> How badly I have been waiting to write this chapter...
> 
> *Insert evil laughter*

**Check out the notes for the inspiration for this chapter! If something is wrong or not right or you want me to change it, please tell me!**

"Oh, Dream!" One of the villagers called the moment Dream set foot in the village. All Dream wanted to do was go back home. To Nightmare. Where they both were safe and loved.

_"Stop whining.. this is for Nighty..."_

Dream smiled kindly at the villager. "Can this be quick? I promised I would visit someone!"

The villager smiled in understanding. "My son hit his knee against the edge of his bed, and his leg started to bleed a lot. Heal him."

.......seriously?

"Ofcourse!~" Dream smiled a ~~fake~~ kind smile, and the villager stepped out of the way, revealing their sniffeling child. He couldn't be older then five.

Dream knelt down, gently pulling his pant sleeve up a bit to expose the wound. This wasn't even a scrap wound, and there was no blood at all. It was just a bit red. It would be gone within a couple minutes. Dream's hands lit up gold anyway.

Now, Dream didn't blame the kid for looking so upset about it. They were a child afteral, much younger then Dream himself, childeren tended to overreact and not understand, it was normal. Dream was annoyed at the parent, who _seriously_ asked his _magic_ to "heal" a wound that was not even there. Even if there was a wound, they had healers for goodness sake!

But Dream kept silent and pulled his hands away, pulling the pant sleeve back down. The kid smiled brightly at him. "Thank chuuuuuu!!!!"

Dream smiled softer in return. "Ofcourse.." 

When Dream got up, more and more villagers collected around him, all wanting _something_ of his magic. But for once, Dream pushed them away. "I'm really sorry, but I promised I would help someone!"

The villagers looked really annoyed, some even angry with his statement. "But you're supposed to help!"

Dream winced. "I know, and I will help you all later, I promised someone to help them first. I can't break my promise.."

There were more and more protests, Dream trying to asure them all. What he didn't notice was a group of angry villagers, atleast four, sneaking off... to.. the same way Dream had just come from..

Dream promised to help them. He wasn't helping right now. Which meant a certain guardian would get a visit...

* * *

"Are they serious?" Horror asked, annoyed. "He just helped them all an hour ago!"

"And that kid, geez." Dust groaned. "I get that the kid is upset, but shouldn't the parent know that they shouldn't waste Dream's magic like that?"

"They're selfish and rotton from within." Nightmare answered. "There is no good in them."

Cross turned around. "There really was no one nice to you? What about the kids?"

Nightmare sighed. "Its not the children's fault they feared me. They were small. Ofcourse they believe anything their parents tell them. Their parents told them I'm evil. So they feared me."

"The poor kids..." Cross sighed. They didn't even get the chance to meet the real Nightmare!

"Uh.. Nightmare?" Killer broke the silence with a small voice, pointing at a group of villagers, who were sneaking of, taking the path back to the tree. They all paled.

".....so-"

"Not now, Dust."

"But... if Dream is _here_ when _they_ are leaving, to.. ya know.. and this _is_ the day _it_ happened-"

"-Dream wasn't there when it happened." Horror finished with.. erhm, horror."He was _here,_ still thinking he was saving you.. how he is saving you by being here is beyond me."

"That also means _we_ won't be there when it happens either." Killer sighed. 

"So? we already know what will happen-"

Cross gasped, suddenly looking horrified. The gang jumped. "What?!"

" _He_ doesn't know what will happen!" Cross pointed out, pointing at Dream. "He doesn't know anything! We are just.. watching.. a memory..."

"He doesn't know he is about to lose-"

"-and _we_ are going to watch his reaction. Fucking great."

Nightmare had already realized that. So had Killer. 

Nightmare didn't know if he was glad or sad that he wouldn't know what lead him to try and eat the apple. But atleast he knew what to expect.

....sort of.

He knew what to expect for _himself._ He didn't know what would happen with Dream. How would Dream find out? Will he just be walking back home to have his brother try and stab him? Will he finally give in and fight Nightmare? How would he react?

Depending on his thoughts, not so good..

"Aaaaaand he's going into a strangers home. How smart." Killer crossed his arms. 

"Well, we were between the ages 12 or 16 back then... and we knew everyone already.."

"More like everyone knew you." Dust sighed. This could not end well.

Well, they already knew that.

* * *

"Dream!!!" A bunny called, waving over from the house Dream had pointed at. The bunny quickly ran over. "You're here for Kate, right?"

Oh.

Dream nodded. The bunny smiled.

"Yeah, some trouble with her daughter at her school popped up. She needed to pick her up earlier, which is why she asked me to welcome you until she comes back!"

"Oh.. thank you for being so nice!" Dream actually brightend up once he felt some positive energy from the bunny. Positive energies were rare in this village, and whatever there was, he took gladly. He hadn't seen this villager before.. were they new?

"Lets get you inside, shall we?" They smiled. "Kate already made some tea ready for you, which is a good thing, I can't make tea."

"I'm sure you'll do great!" Dream followed them inside, frowing and smiling at the same time. Why were they so welcoming? Didn't they know they had been waiting for Nightmare?

The bunny chuckled. "No, I really can't. I'm allergic."

"To tea?"

"Nah, a certain plant, but that plant is used in almost all tea's, which is why I can't have it."

"Aww. I'm sorry to hear that." Dream said as he sat down.

"Its fine. I like milk better anyway!" The bunny smiled as she walked away, into the kitchen. From there, they grabbed a cup from one of the shelfs, turning off the stove, and grabbing the tea pot aswel, before walking back to the living room, where they had left Dream waiting. They set their suplies on the table, before handing Dream a cup. "Here you go."

"Thank you!" Dream smiled as he took a sip. It tasted nice. 

He still preferred apple juice. 

"Ohh, don't thank me, dear. Thank Kate once she comes back." The bunny smiled, sitting on one of the chairs, and they started talking.

It had been atleast 20 minutes, when it started. Dream didn't really have a bad time, so to say, but...hadn't he eaten enough? He started feeling lightheaded again.. he put his second tea down, needing a second, blinking.

The bunny quickly noticed. "Are you alright, dear?"

"Y-yeah.. I have used a _bit_ too much magic again." Dream smiled. That was an understatement. But the bunny smiled in understanding.

"Would you like some more tea? It has got a lot of magic."

"That would help, actually. Thank you." Dream smiled thankfully as the bunny handed him another cup. He took a sip from it. He just felt dizzy...

A knock on the door got both their attention. "Oh. Must be Kate." The bunny smiled, getting up. "I'll be right back!" They quickly walked away to open the door. 

Dream blinked, taking another sip. He.. had more then enough magic in his system for sure, Nightmare made sure of that. Was he getting sick? That could be i-

 _"WHAT_ DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" The cup Dream had been holding was slapped out of his hands by the human from before, not looking happy at all. They seemed outraged and stressed at the same time. Both Dream and the bunny looked shocked.

"Oh god, Dream, I am so sorry for her." The bunny apologized. "Dear, are you feeling well?" They then asked the human, who was freaking out, until she noticed Dream. "U-uh.. I remember you getting sick once after eating.. nuts! Yeah, nuts, and that tea had been made for my daughter who _loves_ nuts.." the human laughed nervously.

Dream frowned. "Nuts?" He repeated. Who put nuts in their tea? He got he was naive, but did they really think he was this stupid?

For now, he decided to keep playing along. The bunny gasped. "Oh my- thats why you were feeling lightheaded-" the human paled once hearing that. "Gosh, I am so sorry Dream, I must have not listened well to Kate-"

"Its alright. It will pass." Dream smiled kindly at the villager, not missing how much paler the human looked. "Are you alright? You don't seem well."

"He's right, dear, come on." The bunny grabbed the human by her arm, pulling her to the couch as the human was freaking out from within. Why though? It was just tea...

And obviously made up... who put nuts in their tea? Dream never even ate nuts....

"Should I get some water?" Dream offered, already getting up. The bunny shook their head. "Oh, Dream, maybe you should rest? You already did enough."

"I'm already feeling better." Dream lied, feeling his headache grow worse. What was happening... "You make sure she's okay. I'll go to the kitchen-"

"NO-"

"Ofcourse, dear. The water is in the fridge, the cups are in the second left cabinet. Do you think you can reach it?" The bunny asked, putting a paw on the human's mouth.

"Ofcourse I can!" Dream smiled proudly, already running off.

* * *

...

"....that was not suspicious at all." Dust deadpanned, earning a groan from Killer. Dust seemed to look at the broken cup as the memory kept continuing on, observing it. It seemed familiar.. 

"....who puts nuts in their tea?" Horror said. He had never heard of it.. but that probably was because he came from a starving world.

"The queen loved forever nuts tea." Cross commented. "Its a bit hard to make though, which is why most people don't drink it. I doubt they'll have the equipement here to make that though.."

Nightmare didn't like how relaxed that bunny had been. Surely they knew they weren't waiting for Dream?

...

Dust paled once he finally realized why that tea seemed so familiar. The golden colour that seemed just a bit too gold, easily mistaken for golden buttercup tea. But it didn't smell...

That was no tea.

* * *

Dream had to stand on one of the chairs to reach the cabinet, which wasn't helping. He felt really dizzy.. he wasn't able to see the inside of the cabinet from being so short, so his hand was feeling freely around, until he touched something that felt like glass. Not caring what he grabbed, he grabbed the glass cup, setting it on the counter, before closing the cabinet, and getting of the chair himself. He needed to blink a couple times to snap his vision back to normal, reaching out to grab the glass again, only to realize he had grabbed a bottle with some sort of liquid in it instead. What was that?

It wasn't his business, so Dream was about to climb the chair again, when he accidentally saw the tag on the bottle.

**Buttercup mix**

That was all he catched in that one second. But it got his attention. Buttercups were those highly poisenous flowers, right? Nightmare had warned him about those. Why would the human have that lying around..?

It really wasn't his business..

Dream was battling himself. He shouldn't read the rest of it. He shouldn't-

But then he noticed that this mix and the tea he had just drank had the exact same colour. Now that made him freeze. No..

He sat down on the chair to fight his dizziness as he read the tags.

**Buttercup mix- use no more then one drop in your drink to fight any illness in your magic.**

**WARNING**

**Using too much Buttercup mix could result in the following symptoms:** ****

**-Headache**

**-Nousia**

**-Dizziness; and or black outs**

**-Ringing in the ears**

**-Extreme tiredness [If this is a symptom, DO NOT SLEEP]**

**-Fever**

**-Weakness in magic**

**-Death**

**Even the tiniest but of Buttercup Mix could kill someone young or sick. Make sure to read instructions carefully before use.**

**If you have any of the following symptoms or think you had too much, seek help from a medical professional immediately!**

Dream's eyelights had gone out as he continued to read the warnings in growing horror. He opened the bottle, trying to smell it.

The strong scent of buttercups hit him hard, and he almost dropped the bottle out of pure shock. Quickly, Dream put the lid back on. He checked the colour again, before checking his symptoms.

That had been no tea Dream had just drank. He knew what it was. Nightmare had often showed him pictures and teached him about how dangerous it was.

That was not tea.

It was poison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, a long chapter to make up for how long I have been dead.. I'm really sorry..
> 
> This chapter doesn't feel right.. but I wanted to write it for sooooooo looooooong-
> 
> Some serious stuff about to go down.
> 
> Let the fun begin.~
> 
> English is not my first language (or autocorrect ruins my life) so if you see any mistakes, please don't hesitate to tell me!


	6. Misunderstandings [lies]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream is.. not so positive right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And, from this chapter on, I will be forced to write angst... I'm sorry.
> 
> I'm excited-
> 
> And scared-

"No they didn't." Horror said in a low, shocked voice, the single eyelight in his sockets gone as he watched Dream slowely realize what just happened to him. "No they didn't-"

"Thats why they wanted me..." Nightmare whispered in a horrified tone, an incredible amount of guilt starting to grow in his soul. Great, even when doing nothing he found a way to hurt Dream. "They... they.." his turquoise eyelight disappeared.

"Don't they know what kind off effects that could have on ones magic?!" Dust sounded mad. Really mad. "They were trying to kill you! If it didn't kill you, it would kill of your magic! Which _could_ later result in killing you!"

"...thats the point. They wanted me _dead_." Nightmare was shocked. He knew the villagers hated him. But he didn't know it was _that_ bad... and how the hell did that bunny mistake Dream for him?! 

"I get that we're _identical twins_ , but.. but how?!" Nightmare started to sound angry. Oh, so angry. If these people still were alive..... oh oh oh.. Nightmare hoped his passive self had given hell to these people for hurting his brother.

"Well, obviously, it didn't effect him." Killer pointed out. "Wasn't this seven thousand years ago? Dream is fine now."

"Or something happened and passed.." Horror commented.

"...still... they probably didn't know you're immortal.." Cross mumbled, feeling horrible on Dream's behalf. Yes, they were enemies. He still felt so bad... Dream obviously had tried to help Nightmare... and yet..

Killer crossed his arms. He felt bad for Dream, yes. But... he hated Nightmare in the future, didn't he? That he was a good person in the past, didn't mean he was a good person in the future. ~~Or he was just misunderstood?~~

...

Nightmare turned to Dust. "Dust, besides killing someone, what can having Buttercup poisening do to someone?"

Dust closed his sockets painfuly. "Best case scenario, just falling into a coma. If you're lucky, you just get an incredible fever. Worst case scenario, it can fully kill of the magic of the person or the person themself. Though, with how strong Dream's magic is, that obviously didn't happen.." 

"Uh... dad?" Cross pointed at Dream, who had an empty frown on his face, eyesockets fully devoid of light, watching the two villagers talking, not noticing the guardian.

* * *

Dream felt dizzy, not from the poison in his system, but from feeling sick that the people he had been helping had tried to _kill_ his _brother._ Legs feeling like spaghetti, he managed to collapse onto the chair he had just used instead of the floor.

How glad Dream was he didn't send Nightmare here.. sure, they couldn't die, being guardians and stuff, but he much rather get poisoned himself then let a tiny bit of harm come to his brother.

_"Poison."_

_"They wanted to poison Nightmare."_

No, that was the final straw. Dream didn't care, he wouldn't help these villagers anymore, even if their life depended on it.

~~Well, knowing Dream.. he would probably break after a week.~~

No. He refused. Not after what they tried to do. Nightmare was the most important thing in his life! In _their_ lives too! Why couldn't they just understand, positive emotions are useless without the negative ones!

His eyelights went fully out- something that almost never happened with the positive guardian, as he got up again, holding the bottle tightly in his hands- which had turned into fists. Although his head was throbbing in pain, he ignored it. Later.. later he could deal with this later.. for now, he first needed to focus on getting back to his twin. Yeah... Nightmare... he was safe.. their home, mom, that was safe.. he just wanted to go home.. to his twin.. 

Dream didn't struggle as he walked, although, he walked very slow, but that was only because of his shock and growing anger. As he reached the door, with one hand, he grabbed the side of the door, empty sockets peaking inside the room.

"How could you let this happen?!" The human whisper-screamed, the bunny shrinking under their gaze. "Like- how?! I was so clear!"

Thats when the bunny got mad, crossing their arms. "You referred to him as "that guardian". How was I supposed to know you meant Nightmare?! Did you seriously think I would be here if I knew that.. that _monster_ would be here?!"

_"That monster?"_

Dream was so done, he crossed his arms as he cleared his throat. "Ahem?'

Both villagers jumped, turning to Dream in a panic, not liking how cold the normally friendly skeleton looked. The human paled once noticing the bottle Dream was holding.

"...this was meant for Nightmare, wasn't it?"

The tension in the room was so much, you could easily cut through it with a knife. Dark thoughts so strong, even Dream could feel them a tiny bit. Dream's empty yet angry gaze seemed to be cutting deep into their hearts, and the villagers weren't sure how to respond, completely overwhelmed with shock. They didn't move, barely breathed.

After a minute or two of the torturing silence, Dream narrowed his face, an angry frown apearing him. "Well?! _**Tell me**!"_

He sounded so _angry_...

The bunny whimpered, pushing the human towards him. The human shot the bunny an angry look, but the bunny was in a panic, talking extremely fast. "Your, plan not mine- bye!"

And they were gone.

...

Slowely, the villager turned to Dream with a soft look in their eyes. "Dream- you can't think straight right now. You've got that awful poison in your system-"

"And who's fault is that?!"Dream snapped, setting a step forward, getting more angry by the minute. The human frowned.

"Nightmare's, ofcourse! If he wasn't such a _monster-"_

 **"SHUT UP!!!"** Dream's anger was starting to turn into something else, his eyesockets holding hell fire. He balled his fists more, his knuckles colouring grey from the pressure. "Name one bad thing he did!"

"He guards the bad apples!" The human defended themselfs, arms going up in defense. "Those apples are evil! He is evil! We would be so much better without them!-"

A cyan arrow was pointed at them in anger.

 **"There is no positivity without negativity."** Dream informed them in a low tone. "No happiness without misery. No light without darkness. No positivity without negativity. Its balance. Without the black apples, the golden apples are useless."

The human was staring at him in shock, before they got angry aswel. "They're evil. Evil I say!!! Without those cursed fruits everyone would be happy! Without your brother everyone would be happy!-" 

The arrow was pointed closer. Dream looked empty at this point. "Those apples are just as important as the ones I guard. Those apples are needed. You can't feel true happiness without true misery." He looked ready to cry. How many times had he repeated this now?

"Nightmare never chose to be the guardian of negativity. It was a role given to him. It doesn't make him evil. It makes him brave." Dream smiled slightly at the thought of his brother, eyelights returning, though they were small and very dim. "He does his job, even though he gets hated so much for it. I don't care what you think.. I love him. Nightmare is the best brother I could ever have.."

The human scoffed. "He has corrupted you, can't you see?! Those _things_ bring nothing but misery! They're not needed! Isn't it your job to get rid of them?!'

...

The arrow disappeared. Dream looked blank once again. And tired. "My job is protecting positive feelings. Not destroying the negative ones.. now that I think about it.. my job isn't being your slave, either." The human paled once hearing that. "W-what do you mean...?"

"It means I won't be helping you, or your village, ever again."

* * *

"...did he just threaten a villager? He just threatend a villager..." Dust mumbled in shock, not having expected the small guardian to be able to do anything close to violence, let alone when so young.

"He didn't mean it." Nightmare said in a blank tone. "Shaking arm, voice lower, and he was looking at the ground. He wasn't actually gonna do anything."

Killer frowned once hearing that. "You still remember his habits?"

...

Nightmare seemed surprised himself. "I... never forgat, I think.."

"I wish I had some popcorn!" Horror grinned, cutting them off. "Yes! Go Dream!"

...

"...never thought I'll say that." The others laughed once hearing that, they were smiling.

"I'm happy he's finally doing something about it.." Cross mumbled, smile falling. "Though, its a bit too late.."

"He didn't do it for himself though.." Killer commented. Dust was still pale, not liking that this was going well. The effects... it... they should appear, soon enough.. max... five minutes before Dream passed out, with the amount of poison now attacking his magic.

He was wondering one thing though.

_How was Dream still standing?! He should be dead with the amount of tea he drank!_

Though, ofcourse, he didn't say that out loud. Nightmare would freak out if he did.

Speaking of Nightmare..

Dust turned to his father figure, noticing that the taller looked a mix of proud and touched. 

Nightmare was, indeed feeling those emotions the most. Oh, so proud of Dream, for sticking up for himself, still trying to stick up for him, even in the situation he found himself in. Touched, by realizing just how much Dream kept giving up in the past. He may not have his memory, but he knew that himself in the past had never noticed his brother's efforts to keep him safe, and he felt so guilty for both never having noticed, and the fact that his brother's efforts would be useless. Yes, he knew. He kept reminding himself that _something_ would happen. What would happen, he had no clue. He couldn't remember. But _something.._ well, he knew he would corrupt at some point. He was just hoping he had taken care of Dream and those... people, atleast, before he did.

....sadly, it would be much worse then he could ever imagen.

"GO DREAM!!!" Both Horror and Cross yelled, making the other two laugh. "He can't hear you, ya know."

"I still want to cheer him on." Horror smirked. "Wish I could shove those idiots of a cliff."

"Or that Dream would just stab them already." Killer added. Cross opened his mouth to say something, but shut his mouth after. Yeah.. he kind off agreed.

For once, Dust was silent. Observing carefully for any signs. Nightmare... was smiling. He felt so warm.. He had always thought Dream had just.. left him to rot. And even though he still felt incredibly guilty for this, he felt proud and touched, even the tiniest bit of happy..

* * *

"Y-you can't just-" the human stuttert out in shock, trying to find their words. Dream was silent, waiting for them to finish. "Just what?"

"You- you- you can't just leave us like that!" The human panicked. They messed up. Oh they messed up. Dream needed to come back!

"Why not?" Dream asked. "You're right. I should do my job. My job isn't playing slave for you." He frowned. "My job is not wasting my magic for such simple things, like a hurting leg. Or the flu? I can't even heal the flu!"

"But- we need your help here!" The human looked desperate. "Please-"

"We had a deal." Dream was firm. "You could use my magic, but would leave Nightmare alone. I know this was meant for my brother. So you can explain the village why I'm not returning." Dream walked towards the table, placing the bottle he had been holding in his hands on it. He thought. "...and for your information, guardians can not die. Atleast, not that easily."

No.

The human started to become angry themself. "Your job is protecting positive feelings, huh?! For us to be happy, we need you here!"

...

Dream got a pained look on his face. Ugh.. he felt so guilty... he really was bad at saying no, wasn't he?

Instead, he forced himself to take a deep breath, noticing that he was starting to feel very lightheaded. He shook his skull to snap out of it. "I'm leaving." Very slowely, shakely, he started to walk towards the door.

The human was freaking out at this point. "Dream, please! We"ll do anything!"

Dream stopped. Very, very slowely, he turned around, looking coldly at the human. "You lost your cha-"

?!

Suddenly, he fell on the ground, as a sudden, blinding pain in his soul made him scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for any of the angst that will appear from now on. I'm excited to start- XD
> 
> And scared-
> 
> I'm sorry QwQ
> 
> English is not my first language (or autocorrect ruins my life) so if you see any mistakes, please don't hesitate to tell me!


	7. The black apple

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The villagers sure like their bats.....
> 
> What happened with those four villagers who sneaked away?
> 
> And how's ~~passive~~ Nightmare doing?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _**WARNING!** _
> 
> _**This chapter will contain bullying and depressed thoughts! This chapter is not needed to understand the rest of the story, so please, if this topic triggers you, please skip this chapter!** _
> 
> _**This chapter is inspired by "TheGrinningKitten" their Dreamtale comic. I really recommend checking out their stories, they're amazing! (I sadly still can't figure out how to put links-)**_
> 
> _**Also, if you think this chapter should be deleted or something changed, please let me know!!!** _

_Note: Since Dream was not here when this happened, the gang will not get to see it. Here's just a summary so we can keep up with Nightmare._

_**WARNING!** _

_**This chapter will contain bullying and depressed thoughts! This chapter is not needed to understand the rest of the story, so please, if this topic triggers you, please skip this chapter!** _

_**This chapter is inspired by "TheGrinningKitten" their Dreamtale comic. I really recommend checking out their stories, they're amazing! (I sadly still can't figure out how to put links-)**_

_**Also, if you think this chapter should be deleted or something changed, please let me know!!!** _

_Earlier_

As promised, Nightmare did stay inside, reading his favorite book again. Surprisingly, that book was a fantasy one. He always loved fantasy for some reason, especially whenever the misunderstood character got treated properly again.

Nightmare frowned. No, don't think about the villagers. They were wrong. They were always wrong. Yeah. Nightmare picked up his book, starting to read again.

He felt like he was forgetting something..

Nightmare thought... what did he do today? Dream had made breakfast for once, left for the village, Nightmare prepared lunch, Dream came back, left again-

Nightmare froze. The tree. They didn't put the barrier around the tree. The villagers could get near the tree. The villagers could _hurt their mother._

Nightmare shot up, running towards the door. Dream would understand why he broke his promise, this- their mother and the emotions- that was important. Besides, Dream was in the village, so every single villager to live there probably too.

The guardian wasted no time running towards the door, slamming it open, and rushing outside-

No one was there. Oh thank the stars.

Nightmare breathed in a sigh of relief, leaning against the tree as he slid down on the ground, feeling the roots of their mother. _She was alright._

"....Lets put this barrier back.." Nightmare breathed to himself, very slowely getting up. It would be a bit harder without Dream, but he could manage. Their mother was most important.

But as Nightmare walked a bit away to put the barrier back, he heard footsteps. _Multible_ footsteps.

Nightmare turned around, paling once seeing four villagers behind him, all having a twisted or violent energy, which Nightmare _did not_ like. He should flee. Whoever, he couldn't leave the tree unguarded like that!

"Well.. well... well.." one of the humans smirked. "If it isn't the guardian of negativity... how "nice" to see you.."

Nightmare took a step back, noticing they had weapons with them. Great. Two bats, a knife, and ofcourse-

?!

_An sword._

_A freaking sword._

His eyesockets went wide and his breath hitched, taking another step back. Okay, calm down- he just had to stay calm.

Nightmare frowned at them. _"Stay away from her."_ he wasn't taking any chances.

"Her?" The villagers looked confused. Before looking at Nightmare, they way he seemed protective of the tree, remembering how much Nightmare spend time with it too. They burst out laughing.

"Her?! Pffffft!!! Haha! You can't be serious!" The villagers laughed loudly, Nightmare wondered what was so funny.

"Your only friend is a tree?! How sad!"

That was his mother, thank you very much.

"Hey, now, don't insult the tree. You might hurt its... _feelings_!" They laughed again.

Nightmare's frown deepend. What did they want now? He took another step back.

"Aww, I've some good news!" One of them giggled. " _Dreamy_ broke our deal." Another giggle. The way he said "Dream" did not sound fun at all. "We gotta show him what the consequences of breaking a deal is.. right guys?" They all agreed. 

Nightmare frowned. Deal? What deal?

"Besides...." they smiled evily. _**"It will be fun ripping you into P I E C E S . . . ~"**_

As if he didn't like the sudden, dark tone in their voice, Nightmare yelped as one of them swung with their knife at him, barely managing to dodge. He was young. He hadn't been trained then... he didn't know how to fight of defend, he only knew a bit of dodging, but that was it.

Another villager swung at him with their bat, but one kept just watching. "Stop! What if he corrupts you just like he corrupted Dream?!"

"I like to see him try!" The villager with the sword dropped their weapon, just when Nightmare dodged again, he grabbed him firmly by his shoulders. "Stay still, you monster!"

Well, yeah-

He was a skeleton monster-

~~Totally did not think of that just to make it hurt less.~~

"Let go off me!" Nightmare struggled, but managed to slip away, the human with the bat accidently hitting the villager who had been holding him in hid stomach. "Ahh!"

The other villager gasped, turning to Nightmare in anger. "You little-"

One of the villagers with the knives kept swinging at him, again, again, again, which Nightmare managed to dodge sometimes, but sometimes he got hit, it didn't hurt that much though. More like a paper cut.

Still, it stung.

The villager swung at him again, and Nightmare managed to jump away, but this time-

_The villager hit the tree._

Nightmare could only stare in horror at the damage on the tree- _his_ _mother-_ his breath hitching. No..

The villager looked up from Nightmare to the tree, then at Nightmare again- seeing how _fearful_ he looked. The villager smirked. Before hitting the tree with their knife again.

"No- STOP!" Tears sprung into his sockets, and Nightmare pushed himself up again

"You really seem to be loving this tree.." another swing. **_"Wouldn't it be a shame if it was gone?~"_**

Nightmare wasted no time running towards the human with the knife, pushing them over, both collapsing on top of each other. Nightmare winced as he accidently cut himself on his leg, but that was fine, that would heal. The human screamed and shouted as if Nightmare was burning him alive, trying to get away from the guardian, pushing him off, getting up, screaming bloody murder. The other three villagers gasped, but made no move to help them. The villager screamed as he looked horrified at his leg. "HE CURSED ME! HE ATTACKED ME!"

All he had was a bruise, at most.

Nightmare looked so **_mad._** He didn't need to look to know that the tree was in pain, he could feel it. 

But his anger was gone as he saw just how fearful the villagers looked ~~of him.~~

Nightmare took a second to just look at them, feeling their fear and anger too.

"Y-you.. you psycho!" The other two humans quickly helped the one Nightmare just pushed onto the ground on his feet, leaving the knife behind on the ground. The last villager quickly ran over to where the other three were, snarling at him. "I told you- he's going to corrupt- no, kill us, I told you!"

**Fear.**

"STAY AWAY FROM US, YOU MONSTER!" One of the humans pulled out a bat, ready to defend themselfs with it. 

**Anger.**

"Why don't you just disappear already?!" One of the monsters asked, **rage** in their voice as they looked at Nightmare with **disgust**. "We don't need your **misery**! We don't need your **disgusting** apples!"

The last villager stared at him with **terror** as they hid behind the other villagers. "We would be so much better without you...Dream would actually be able to do his job without you.. he hurt me!" The other villagers froze as the last one cried out, quickly checking them over. They just had a small bruise, nothing more, but it was enough to make rest gasp in **horror**.

Nightmare was speechless. These emotions.. all these negativity... Nightmare looked at the villagers, then himself, before looking at the villagers again.

_They're feeling like this because of... me..?_

"STAY AWAY YOU FREAK!" Two of them helped the last villager onto their feet, slowely backing away, the fourth one kept trying to use his weapon as defense.

Not like it was needed.. Nightmare couldn't move. Not speak. Not think. Just feel the negativity ~~that he created~~ that the villagers felt. 

Once the villagers noticed that Nightmare wasn't moving, they ran.

...

Nightmare suddenly snapped out of his trance as he remembered the tree. "MOTHER!" He quickly turned around, running towards where the tree was, looking at the damage.

...

He wasn't a tree expert, so he couldn't determine if the damage was a lot or not, but that sure _looked_ bad. Nightmare's breathing stutterd, and very gently, he touched the trunk of the tree.

He felt magic. The trees magic. It was weaker, sure, but it was there. It was still alive.

Nightmare sobbed out of relief before he could stop it, covering his mouth, not being able to stop the violet tears that now freely streamed down his cheekbones. She.. she would be okay. Just a bit of healing and...!

.....would healing magic even work on a tree?

Nightmare closed his eyes in frustration, slamming his head against the tree. He.. he could fix this.. their mother would fine, he just needed Dream and everything would be okay.....!

...

.....he needed Dream.....

**_But did Dream need him?_ **

**_Did the tree need him?_ **

**_Did anyone need him?_ **

Nightmare hit his head again. No, stupid mind. He wasn't evil! He.. he was not... Dream said he was not!!! Nightmare knew he wasn't a bad person..

_"But what if Dream lied?"_

Nightmare couldn't breathe, he was trying to calm down. No, no, Dream wouldn't lie, Dream loved him...!

_"But what if he lied about that too? I mean, come on... he could have lied just to keep his guardian of negativity!"_

"Stop.." Nightmare tried again, his breathing becoming worse, grabbing his skull.

_"You're evil."_

_"Dream knows you're evil."_

Nightmare shook his skull. He was not evil! He was not- he knew he was not!!!

_"Prove it."_

...

Nightmare looked up at the tree. The apples. Before very slowely, he pushed himself up, hand reaching over to one of the golden apples- but stopping before he could touch it. He.. he shouldn't be doing this... but...

...

Nightmare touched the golden apple before he could change his mind. Waiting... but nothing happened.

...

His hold on the apple tightend, before very gently, pulling it off the tree, standing normally on the ground again as he looked at the golden apple in his hands.

It stayed gold.

...

Just when he allowed relief into his soul, just when he allowed himself to smile, Nightmare yelped, and dropped the apple as the guardian felt a sudden, negative energy from the apple.

In horror, he watched the previously golden apple turn black, starting from the area he had been holding it.

Nightmare was horrified. 

He did that.

_He. did. that._

It turned black.

It turned negative.

_~~It turned evil.~~ _

Nightmare gasped, collapsing against the tree as he slid down onto his knees, not caring about who heard him anymore. He did that. He made the positive apple negative. He corrupted it. He turned it evil.

_He was evil._

_"Told you so, you stupid idiot!"_

Another sob escaped him, the guardian curled up, his entire body shaking from his crying. 

~~_"You are evil."_ ~~

~~_"Dream doesn't love you, and neither does the tree!"_ ~~

~~_"Everyone would be so much better with the monster gone..."_ ~~

...

Nightmare looked and felt miserable, he peaked from his hiding spot- seeing the apple he had just dropped. 

~~_"Dream doesn't need you."_ ~~

~~~~~~_"No one needs a monster like you."_ ~~

~~~~His breath hitched as he closed his eyes tightly, not stopping the tears that fell.

_~~"They are afraid of you."~~ _

..were those even Nightmare's thoughts? 

".....they're afraid of me.." Nightmare sounded hypnotized as he repeated that.

~~_"No one cares about you "_ ~~

"No one cares about me..." very, very slowely, Nightmare reached out, picking up the corrupted fruit, just looking at it with an empty, yet tired and miserable look.

_~~"You're evil."~~ _

"I'm evil..." he sobbed softly as he pulled the apple close to his face, looking it.

_~~"Dream doesn't need you!"~~ _

"Dream.. doesn't need me..."

Before he knew what he was doing, the guardian took a bite.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me so much courage just to post this chapter... I don't know why, I just feel extremely bad about posting it..? Please, if this chapter is offensive in any way, or has something wrong, or you just feel like I should delete it, please let me know, and I will delete it as soon as possible...!!! Again, I am so so sorry!
> 
> English is not my first language (or autocorrect ruins my life) so if you see any mistakes, please don't hesitate to tell me!


	8. No more kindness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The guardian of positivity is ~~outraged~~ disappointed.
> 
> The guardian of negativity is no better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh oh oh ohhhh.....
> 
> I have been wanting to write this chapter for sooooo loong.....
> 
> *insert evil laughter*
> 
> Thank you to BookwyrmFinallyGotAnAccount for the help with a couple lines! (They made a couple lines in one of the previous chapters)

"Is that supposed to happen?!" Cross freaked out first, all staring in shock at the guardian, who just screamed and collapsed out of nowhere. All off them turned to Dust, who quickly shook his skull. "Buttercup poisoning should make you pass out or throw up, not attack your soul!"

"How do you know its attacking his soul?!" Killer asked, panicked.

"Don't you see the way he is grabbing his chest?!" Dust pointed out, but he sounded way too loud from his shock. "That is _not_ buttercup poisoning!" 

"I can confirm. People in my au tried to eat Buttercups because there was nothing to eat." Horror added. "Thats not what buttercup poisoning looks like."

Nightmare seemed shocked, but he was freaking out just as much as the other four were.

_~~What did they do to Dream?~~ _

_~~Did they hurt my brother?~~ _

_~~Whats happening?!~~ _

Cross, being more sensitive then the rest, was the first to notice Nightmare's silent panicking, and quickly shushed the others. They all looked up at their father figure in concern.

"Hey... boss..." Killer smiled. "Ya know this is just a memory, right..? Dream is fine.."

"But it still happened.... and I don't need to have my memories to know that I had no fucking clue." Nightmare either didn't know the amount of emotion he was showing towards his twin, or he just didn't care. Either way, the gang made no comment about that.

_"Even back then, he was in pain.. and I was the reason.."_

A hug from Dust caught him off guard, and the rest of the gang quickly followed. It helped him calm down a lot.

After a moment, Nightmare sighed, using his tenticals to hug them back. "Thank you.."

They all hummed. Dust was the first to say something. "If you feel like you can't continue watching, we can just stop, dad."

Nightmare looked softly at him, before he sighed again. "Thank you, Dust, but no.. I want- _need_ to see this. I need to know about what else I missed."

...

They nodded, before looking back at the memory.

* * *

"DREAM?!" The human cried out, yet not making a single move to help said guardian. Dream was twitching and gasping on the floor, shaking, _a lot,_ eyesockets blown wide in shock, wanting to press his hands against his chest but he _couldn't_ because he needed those arms to stay in balance.

_Danger_

_Danger_

_Danger_

_Purple_

_Hurt_

_Hurt?_

_Hurt._

_Purple._

_Purple._

_Purple._

_Violet._

Those words kept repeating in his head, and Dream gasped again, this time his hands did leave the floor to grab his chest, making him lose balance as he closed his eyesockets tightly.

_Violet._

_Violet._

_Violet._

_Moon._

_Moon?_

_Moon._

"DREAM?!" The human tried again, actually looking scared. What was in that poison?! Their friend said it would just knock him out! 

Yeah, they still made absolutely no effort to help Dream.

_Moon._

_Moon._

_Moon._

_Moon._

_Opposite._

_Twin._

_Twin?_

_Twin._

_Brother._

_Nightmare._

**_Nightmare._ **

Dream went completely still for a second, a pained whimper escaping him. "N-Nightmare.." before his eyesockets went wide, and he screamed. **_"NIGHTMARE!!!!"_**

The villager froze as Dream shot up, accidentally hitting his head in the progress, wincing in pain, but he didn't care about that, _something was wrong with Nightmare-_

"H-hey, take it easy!" The human cried out, but Dream took a step back from them, hyperventilating, he groaned in pain. He knew. He just knew. Something was wrong with Nightmare, _something was wrong with his twin **he could feel it-**_

Another stab of pain made him gasp, this time not because of the pain in his soul, but a stab in his chest. The poison took the worst time ever to start having effect. But it was barely able to be felt, so Dream could ignore it easily. For now.

Another deep breath. Calm down.-

Nightmare was hurt.

_Nightmare was hurt._

_Something is wrong with Nightmare-_

Dream chocked on a sob, not even because of the amount of pain he was feeling, but because of the fact that something was wrong with Nightmare _and he wasn't there to help him-_

_"You idiot what are you still here for?! An invitation_ _?! **MOVE!!!"**_

But just as Dream wanted to run out of the door, the villager grabbed his arm.

_"Let me go-"_

Before Dream could even say anything, they held him tighter. **"You are not going anywhere."**

_"They wanted to hurt Nighty."_

"N-No! Let me go!!!!! LET ME GO!" Dream tried to get out of their grasp, but with the pain he was in, that was hard, but he tried to push them away with pure determination. "Let me go!!! My brother needs me _let me go!!!!"_

Dream's screaming got the attention of the rest of the village. People started circling around the house, walking into the house through the open door, looking inside, not having expected a random villager to try and keep Dream in place. "He wants to go back to that idiot, that monster obviously cursed him!" the human justified their actions, holding the skeleton in place.

"Let me go!!!!!!!" Dream tried to yell, but he ended up sobbing again, not from the pain as he tried to pull away. He almost managed, before another villager grabbed his other arm. And another. And another.

Were their aura's always this dark?

"Let me go!!!! My brother needs me!!!!" Again, he tried to pull away, another stab at his soul giving him determination to move, Nightmare- _he was hurt. He was hurt, Dream knew he was hurt-_

They only held him tighter. One of the villagers snarled. "What did that monster do to him?!"

"Don't worry.. you will be freed from his spells soon!" One of the other villagers tried to reassure him, but that only made Dream trying to get away more. Nightmare was not a monster, why couldn't they just understand that?!

"Let me go!!!" He started to sound angry, thanks to the villagers who _dared_ to even _suggest_ that Nightmare was evil, and he started to pull harder as a couple more villagers entered the house. Including the villagers that just had attacked Nightmare. "Let me go let me go _let me go!!!! Nighty needs me, LET ME G- uh?!"_

All the villagers froze as Dream's eyelights went out, his body becoming limp in their hold, not making a single sound anymore. In their shock, they dropped the guardian, who collapsed onto the floor-

_Blood was starting to appear on his cape._

In shock, they turned to the villager who had been behind him.

It was one of the villagers who had tried to attack Nightmare just a couple minutes ago, looking scared but extremely angry, their arms were shaking-

_Holding a bloody knife in their hands._

* * *

"They did not." Nightmare whispered out in horror, eye going from his twin to the villager with the knife. "They did just fucking not-"

The moment Dream had fallen, they all had gasped, but the Sanses quickly figured out what just happened. They knew what stab wounds looked like, even if it was hard to see, thanks to the cape.

"Did they just..." Killer was speechless, all his anger against the young guardian vanished within a second.

"What- why?!" Dust sounded.. angry. Anger was starting to build up into his soul. "What the- _why the fuck would they do that?!"_

Cross just blinked. He blinked again. "Are those the villagers who sneaked off before..?"

"Yes." Horror sounded tense, eyes not leaving the human once.

"Dude what the fuck was that for?!" Dust yelled, getting annoyed once remembering he couldn't be heard. Before he froze completely. 

Nightmare stared at the villagers in shock and disbelief, before his soul filled with pure rage as his tentacles sharpened. Those... _monsters_..

Honestly, the gang had seen Dream cry out for Nightmare before. During their first ever battles. He had stopped with trying to convince Nightmare, just battling his brother now in silence. 

But.. this was just heartbreaking.

Killer seemed to come up with a theory. "His thoughts.. whatever those were... the moment he felt pain, the only thing he could think of was you.." Killer froze, not liking the idea he came up with. The others looked up quickly. "What?!"

"....." Killer frowned, concern taking of his face. "He.. he knew something happened to Nightmare.. what if... what if it actually.."

Killer did not need to finish. The gang understood. Cross gasped in horror, Horror was speechless. No.. but.. people often said twins had some kind of conection...

Nightmare seemed to realize what Killer meant, his eyelight went out. "Dear lord.."

_And another way he hurt Dream. Good job Nightmare!_

He got a stomp on his arm from Horror. "What?"

"....uhm.. guys?" Dust called out, but he was talking way too softly to be heard.

"Not. Your. Fault." Horror crossed his arms, frowning. Nightmare frowned, before smiling for a bit. "Thanks, Horror."

"Nightmare....?"

The rest of the gang looked at him. "Yeah?"

"How are we still seeing the memory if Dream is unconcious?" 

They all froze.

* * *

"YOU FUCKING IDIOT!!!!" One of the villagers yelled at the human, who's anger turned to shock as he realized who he had just tried to kill.

"Dang it, Gerald!" One of the monsters yelled, groaning. "You got the wrong one!"

"How was I supposed to know?! They're identical for goodness sake!" The human tried to defend themselfs, frowning.

"They literally wear different clothes! Different eyelights?!"

"I wasn't looking, I just heard that monster's name!"

"His voice!?"

"They sound almost the same!" The human turned to the bunny from before, looking at them with anger. "You were supposed to make sure we had the right one!"

The bunng growled. Before pointing at the human from before. "Blame Kate! I didn't even know I was waiting for that monster!"

The first human snarled, taking a step forward. "I gave you clear instructions, dear! How much more obvious do you want me to make it for you?!"

"Oh really?!" The bunny asked. Before repeating what the villager had said earlier. "Oh, by the way, that "guardian" will later come visit, to drink some "tea" with me, but something came up with my daughter. Can you let him in until I'm back?" Before they crossed their arms.

They all shot accusing looks at the villager, who paled.

Before they ran away.

"COWARD!" The bunny yelled after them.

Meanwhile, one of the human villagers was having a mental breakdown. "THATS NOT NIGHTMARE OH GOD YOU KILLED THE POSITIVE GUARDIAN WHAT DO WE DO?!?!?!?!?"

One of the monsters rolled their eyes. "Chill. Monsters dust when they die. Dream is very much alive."

"Oh thank god." The human sighed in relief.

"What the..." one of the villagers had gone after the human that had ran away, looking outside. "Micheal? Whats wrong?"

One of the other villagers who had gone to visit Nightmare was extremely pale. "He did it.. he ate it... we were right!!!" The villagers gasped. "Really?!"

"He started screaming when he ate the golden one, it turned black under his touch, we told you he is evil!"

This villager had stayed behind..

But that meant.... _oh no...._

Some of the villagers cheered. "We'll finally get rid of the monster! We'll be free!"

"And rich..." one of the humans smirked, looking at the unconcious guardian of positivity. "Just think about how much money people will pay to be happy!" The villagers behind him smirked too.

"Hey, dumbass, never thought about the fact that that _thing_ might attack us?!" One of the villagers asked, pointing at the mountain where the tree was. There..

.....what was that black thing? Where did Nightmare go?

They all froze. "Did... did it _eat_ him?"

"Maybe it decided that monster should die and finished the job for him." One of the rabits snarled, crossing their arms.

"Still. We should make sure it doesn't attack the village." Everyone nodded in agreement, starting to walk out. But one of the smarter ones stopped.

"Uhm.. what about Dream? We can't just leave him here, what if he wakes up?"

The villagers sighed, turned around. They looked at the villager who had stabbed him. "They will stay with him."

"Excuse me?!"

"You did this, you fix it!"

The human was pushed towards the unconcious guardian. "Fine! Geez, you don't have to push me!" They walked towards the table to put their knife down, as all off the other villagers left to see what this was about. Some of them returned to their homes to get weapons. As the villager returned, they grumbled to themselfs. "Why do I always have to do this.. I am not a babysitter!"

They sighed, kneeling down besides Dream. He could tie him to the couch, he was sure he saw a rope somewhere-

?!

The human yelped as their hand was suddenly grabbed, before being dragged towards the guardian, kicked in their stomach, and being pushed against the wall harsly, not being able to escape as someone was holding him tightly by his shoulders, and cyan arrows were pointed at them. The villager looked up.

Finding out it was Dream who had him captive.

_Had he been awake this entire time?!_

Fear took over their face as the usually friendly skeleton looked _outraged._ His eyesockets were empty and holding hellfire, and when he spoke, he spoke in a low tone, and sounded... outraged and threatening. 

**_"Where. Is. My. Brother."_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, incase I hadn't made it clear about whats happening with Dream, I believe that since Dream and Nightmare are twins, they have some kind of conection. So when Nightmare ate the apple, Dream felt it, which is why he was in so much pain. His soul was telling him that his brother was dying to try and get help to the guardian of negativity as fast as possible.
> 
> English is not my first language (or autocorrect ruins my life) so if you see any mistakes, please don't hesitate to tell me!!!


	9. Corruption

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuff is going down... everything is just.. not good..
> 
> But hey. Atleast this is just the past.
> 
> ......right?

...

Killer hid his smile by covering his mouth with his hand, turning away, chuckling softly. Dust was in a state of shock, wondering how Dream was even standing. Horror was frozen for a second, before chuckling too, still nervous but finding it amusing what he saw. Cross was grinning, "Well..."

Nightmare blinked. He looked at his twin. He blinked again, feeling warmth growing in his soul. Dream just threatened a villager.. for him...?

"HECK YEAH!" Horror yelled, throwing his fists into the air. "GO DREAM!!!"

"Seems like mister goody-two-shoes can be a badass after all." Killer grinned, his hands slipping into his pockets. 

....Nightmare allowed himself to smile, a familiar warmth spreading in his body. Huh... looks like he was wrong about Dream hating him...

Even if Dream hated him now, (not that Nightmare could blame him for that) the fact that he used to care..

Horror and Cross had been cheering on Dream, until the shorter noticed the look of concern on Dust's face. "Dust?"

"...he shouldn't be standing." Dust's eyelights were gone, not leaving the guardian once. "He shouldn't be standing. He should be throwing up. Passed out. Slip into coma. Dying? Bleeding? He shouldn't be able to use magic.."

Well that was reassuring.

The rest frowned, Horror went silent. Immediately, Nightmare was alarmed, searching for the signs. He found them rather quickly.

Dream's arrows were starting to flicker, just a tiny bit, barely able to be noticed. His magic. That poison was attacking his magic. 

The rest went dead silent, not liking Dust being so serious, as the skeleton usualy was the joker around them. 

"....well.. his magic is okay in the future?" Cross tried. Trust me, they knew. Dust seemed to think, before he smiled. Why was he relieved that Dream was okay in the future? "Yeah.. you're right.." 

Even if the gang seemed to relax, Nightmare was still.. worried? Why? He didn't care about Dream. He _didn't._

_Keep lying to yourself._

They all brought their attention back to the memory.

* * *

For a minute, all there was was silence. Safe to say, the human was terrified, but if it was because of the arrows or the guardian, they didn't know. Probably both.

"Well?" Dream sounded _furious_ as he pushed the human further against the wall, both his eyes suddenly lighting up a dark gold. **_"TELL ME!!!!"_**

Seems like he was done being nice.

The human whimpered to themselfs, closing their eyes. "T-the stupid tree he always hangs around! We p-proved he was evil- there was a monster there- N-Nightmare is finally gone!" Dream seemed to freeze when he heard that, arrows disappearing, all his anger disappeared like smoke. Tree? Stupid tree?! Mom?! Nightmare?!?!

Without even thinking, he just let go of the human, making them drop on the ground, running outside. The moment he opened the door, he saw that the entire village was outside, with torches, pitchforks, clubs, knives, you name it. All sorts of weapons an angry crowd could have. The sky was grey, turning darker, daker, perfectly maching the aura's around, not even a single bit of positivity in this darkness. Although the tree was way too far away, Dream could clearly see that most of the villagers were circling around the tree for whatever reason, only a couple having stayed behind.

_**"He did it.. he ate it... we were right!!!"** _

_**"He started screaming when he ate the golden one, it turned black under his touch, we told you he is evil!"** _

He? That must be Nightmare. Ate it...? Ate what? Alright, what did the villagers say again? He started screaming when he ate the... golden one? Turned black under his touch?

With how hazy his mind started to grow, it took Dream a couple seconds to figure out what the humans had meant. But the moment he realized, he froze.

Apple.

Nightmare ate.. he.. **_oh no...._**

Tears appeared in his sockets as he was hit with that horrifying idea- please no!!!! But, the moment he felt another stab of pain in his chest, he knew. He just knew. 

Dream closed his eyes, wiping away his tears. He couldn't break down. Not now, atleast.

"ALL OF YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED!!!" Dream screamed angrily into the air, the remaining villagers who had stayed behind turning around in shock, not having expected the guardian of positivity to appear.

"He's still awake?!"

"Dream!! You should rest!!!" One of the monsters tried, because apparently, they were "worried".

"Hold him!" One of the other villagers yelled, their pitchfork pointed at the guardian. "He is still trapped in that monster's spells!!!"

They shouldn't have said that...

Light disappeared out of his sockets again, his staff appearing in his hands as he pointed it at the villager. "STAY BACK!!!"

The monster yelped, dropping their weapon, taking a step back.

"Relax! Its just Dream! He wouldn't betray us!" One of the bunnies tried, yelping as Dream looked them in the eyes, staff now pointed at them.

"Each and every single one of you should be ashamed!!!" Dream screamed, blinking away his tears. "Nightmare never did anything wrong- he is the kindest person there is- WHAT GIVES YOU THE _**FUCKING**_ RIGHT TO HURT HIM!?!?!"

The small amount off villagers took a step back, obviously afraid of the skeleton. Dream seemed scary... and outraged... and he had all right to be.

Dream took a second to breathe, before he started to walk again, but stopping as a weak groan escaped him, sinking onto his knees, using his staff to balance himself as he tried to soothe his spinning head. Everything hurt.. 

But he almost screamed again as he felt another stab of pain in his soul, dropping his staff, leaning on arms and legs, tears appearing in his sockets again. 

_'Come on... breathe... come on...'_ Dream thought to himself, taking in a couple deep breaths, blinking his tears away again. Ignoring anymore pain, he reached of to his staff, using it to give him support and balance as the small guardian pushed himself on his legs again, feeling determination burn in his soul. More pain followed, but he ignored it this time.

_'Hang on Night... I'm coming... just hang on...'_

Another deep breath, before he started to run.

* * *

"....he really cared about you, huh.." Killer mumbled, finally having accepted that Dream really did care about Nightmare. Atleast, back then.

"....yeah..." Nightmare felt really warm, and although he knew Dream would find Nightmare in.. a less then ideal state, he actually smiled, feeling loved.. and happy, for some reason. Perhaps because he had thought Dream had feared him back then. "..he did..." 

Killer smiled slightly, before that smile disappeared again. Horror growled, hands twitching with the need to have his axe. "Can we go to your au after this and kill those idiots?"

"This was thousands of years ago." Cross reminded, wanting to stab them just as much, even though he didn't kill. "They're all dead already."

"Thats not fair." Dust pouted, crossing his arms. "They deserve a long, painful death."

"They deserve worse then that..." Killer's eyelights went out. 

"...hey, Nightmare?" Horror asked as he suddenly remembered something. Nightmare looked up. "Don't they fear Dream just as much as they fear you now?"

...

"They do.." Nightmare sighed, feeling guilty again. Yet happy at the same time. All that love Dream had around him... he gave that all up for his twin. Although, it was obvious at this point, that all the villagers cared about was Dream's magic. So perhaps it was a good thing Dream saw their real faces.

"Uhm... hate to break the moment.." Dust started, sounding unsure. "But.. ehh... I think we all know where this is going..."

It took the gang a second to figure it out, but the moment they did, Cross gasped, Killer went very still, Horror looked away. Nightmare had already been aware, ofcourse. He just chose to be oblivious.

"...this won't be pretty." Nightmare warned, sighing. Cross looked up. "Do you really not remember anything? Anything at all?"

"All I remember is the pain." Nightmare winced. "The rest, I have no clue.."

So... this would be just as much of a shock for Nightmare as it would be for the gang... oh great...

* * *

He kept running. Running. Running. No matter how much his body hurt, Dream kept running. He couldn't stop. He couldn't think. His mind and soul were screaming at him about Nightmare, to save his twin. And thats what he planned to do, no matter how much he hurt himself in the progress. So, he kept running until he reached the tree. 

There was a crowd surrounding the tree, but something was obviously wrong.. Dream couldn't see past the crowd, but he certainly heard screaming. A corrupted voice. He knew that voice, even if it was different, he knew that voice.

His staff ready in one hand to defend himself, Nightmare or their mom from any of the villagers, Dream started pushing past them, the villagers becoming shocked at the sight of the guardian. Some were cheering. "He will save us from that monster!" Dream had no doubt they meant Nightmare. Others were angry. But most were confused and shocked. How did Dream get here?

"Out of my way." Dream snarled under his breath, pushing another villager away, finally making it to the center.

What he saw, made him freeze. Eyelights going out, Dream forgat how to breathe, and dropped his staff on the ground out of shock.

That... that.. that couldn't be...

But, when he saw those now turquoise eyelights, he knew. 

In the center of the crowd, the crowd tried to stay away from _him_ as much as possible. On the ground, a skeleton in that familiar purple clothing and golden crown was screaming in pain, blood everywhere, something black and goopy covering atleast half of his bones. Half his skull was covered in goop, most of his ribs, and a part of his left leg. Strange, goop like tentacles burst out of his chest and back, Dream was certain he had atleast a _couple_ broken ribs, if not his entire ribcage was destroyed. A tentacle like thing was cracking out of his left eyesocket too, the all too familiar purple clothing covered in goop, and although it was hard to see, there was blood. A lot of it, infact.

Dream was shocked, scared, worried, but mostly, horrified.

Because he had no doubt.

That was his twin.

The screaming skeleton on the ground, covered in goop and blood, was Nightmare.

* * *

Killer chocked on his breath the moment they saw Nightmare. Horror was no better, legs suddenly feeling like jelly, he collapsed onto Dust as he found that his legs didn't want to work. Dust had gasped in horror, barely managing to catch the taller skeleton in time, not even progressing that he was holding said skeleton, looking extremely pale, even though he was a skeleton himself, already looking white. Cross looked like he wanted to scream. He was frozen, a horrified look on his face, barely breathing. All of their eyelights went out.

All Nightmare did was wince when he first saw the crowd, because he knew what was happening. However, although he wasn't shocked at seeing his former self and the state he was in, it still was shocking to see... that. 

"O-oh m-my g-g-god..." Killer chocked out, barely managing to speak, suddenly feeling sick to his stomach. The other three were unable to speak. Dust couldn't hold Horror anymore, both skeletons collapsed onto the ground, but their eyes stayed fixed on the screaming guardian. Cross summoned a big knife to use as support, because he couldn't stand anymore. He looked ready to faint. 

Sooo......

If Nightmare had known that him looking like that would give them _that bad_ of a reaction, ht would have never even made the gang watch. 

Using his tentacles, Nightmare gently wrapped them around Cross' shoulders to steady him, another pair of tentacles gently wrapping around Horror's chest, gently getting him off Dust so that he could breathe again, using his tentacles as support to that the skeleton could sit on the ground, doing the same for Dust. Just in case, he wrapped another tentacle around Killer's shoulders, noticing how sick they all looked. Not like he could blame them.

The first to snap out of his trance was Dust, quickly shooting a look at Nightmare, who just looked at them softly. The dusty skeleton looked at their father figure, then the screaming guardian from the memory, and back at Nightmare again. That was back then.. Nightmare was okay now.. he was.. okay... 

He hugged the tentacle who kept him steady, trying to convince himself that Nightmare was indeed fine now. 

The next to snap was Cross, who had the same reaction as Dust, not breathing that well anymore. Eyelights not leaving the scene once, he hugged the tentacle holding him without another word, a faint whimper escaping him at the thought of that this was reality. Killer was next, being thankful for the tentacle around his back, suddenly relieved that Nightmare didn't remember anything. Yes, he would have wanted Nightmare to remember that Dream actually cared about him, but, with how much pain passive Nightmare seemed to be in, Killer was glad Nightmare couldn't remember.. that.

_Didn't Nightmare say he rememberd that pain?_

Killer ignored the voice of his mind.

Horror seemed stuck, looking like he might throw up, not moving once. Nightmare frowned worriedly, gently shaking his shoulders. It took a while, but Horror finally snapped out of it. Save to say, they were all horrified.

".......I am so s-sorry..." Dust said shakely, not liking what was- _had_ happened. Nightmare sighed. "Its not your fault.. and besides... I wouldn't have met you if I never corrupted..."

"S-still.." Cross chocked out, looking at both guardians again. 

"...if any of you want to stop, just say it." Nightmare said. He held his hand out, and the memory paused. The same purple orb from before appeared in his hands again. "Just say it. And I will bring us back."

"No." Killer said without any hesitation, looking serious.

Nightmare frowned, confused. "Why?"

"One. Because we know that _you_ will continue watching the memory, _alone_." Dust said seriously, taking in a deep breath. "We may feel... sick, when watching... that. But, we can't let you do that alone. Thats what family is for, right?"

Family.

It felt right, to call the gang his family. They _were_ a family. But... he had always cared about Dream. Not remembering anything, he thought Dream hated him. Now that he knew the truth.. how much Dream gave up for him... was it selfish of Nightmare to want his old family with him aswel?

"And besides.." Cross' face darkened, he seemed dead serious. "We want to see what those idiots did to you." Welp. That sure shocked Nightmare, because he finally understood. They were worried about him..

"Besides.." Killer started, before he tried to smirk. "Someone has to keep cheering Dream on."

"HECK YEAH!" Horror grinned. "And hey! I want to see you or twin two to kick some ass!"

"YEAH!" 

...

Nightmare chuckled to himself, feeling warmth again. His boys were unbelievable... but he wouldn't have them any other way.

"Alright..." the orb disappeared again, and Nightmare held out his hand to start the memory again. "....aren't you gonna let go of my tentacles."

"No."

He laughed this time, not noticing the rest of the gang smiling in relief. "Alright... I'm starting the memory again. Ready?"

They all nodded. Nightmare snapped his fingers. They were greeted by screaming again.

* * *

Dream felt an indescribable pain in his soul, not because of the poison or because he got stabbed, but because of the state his twin was in. He felt like crying just by looking at Nightmare, his pain filled screams making his soul shatter. You could have ripped his soul out of his ribcage and it would hurt less. 

However.. by the black apple on the ground, which seemed to be missing a bite, Dream could tell. Nightmare ate the apple. _On purpose. Knowing_ what happened when you ate the apple. Not extra power. But either instant death, or painful death.

Nightmare was dying.

But.... his soul wasn't screaming at him about death. It was screaming- _warning_ him about corruption.

_Corrupted._

_Corrupted._

_Corruption._

_Losing it._

_Insanity._

_Pain._

So many things in his head... but not even one spoke about death.

And, Dream remembered Nightmare explaining to him, that being guardians, both twins were immortal. Dream, being young, didn't know what that meant, ofcourse, but, he understood that that meant that Nightmare couldn't die. He would just be in pain. A whole lot of pain..

_"What are you still standing here for, you fool?! You have legs, don't you?! Use them and help Nightmare!"_

...

Forgetting to pick up his staff, Dream started to very slowely, walk towards Nightmare.

The villagers panicked, was Dream stupid?! Or were Nightmare's spells that good?! "Dream, stop!! You're going to get yourself ki-!"

"He is my brother." Dream answered without second thought, sounding confident and sure, not even the slightest bit of hesitation in his voice. "He won't hurt me."

He really trusted Nightmare more then anything...

Once he was in front of his brother, Dream took a second to just... look. Ignoring the pain he was in, his eyesockets filled with pain and sadness, his eyes softened. He wouldn't touch Nightmare. Not until he was sure Nightmare was okay. That goop seemed to really hurt him, and that purely negative energy getting touched by a positive aura... wouldn't be a good idea..

As slowely as he could, Dream knelt down, sitting on his knees, looking at Nightmare, wishing he could take his pain away, before very, very gently, softly, he spoke. "Nightmare?"

To his surprise, Nightmare froze the moment he heard Dream's voice, very slowely, looking up. The moment he spotted the younger twin, the corruption on his body seemed to calm, the tentacles not swirling aggressively anymore, slowely lowering to the ground. He stopped screaming, the goop stopped spreading, staying exactly the way it was now, covering half of his body. Very, very slowely, he blinked, seeming to relax, as his turquoise eyelights changed back to violet. When he finally found his voice, the older twin sounded shocked, scared... and relieved. A corrupted edge was now added to his voice, making him sound way different, but at the same time, his normal voice was still there, somewhere. As Nightmare finally found his voice, he spoke.

"........Dream......?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My god this chapter feels rushed.. I am so sorry for that. I just have been really stressed lately and wanted to get this into the open!
> 
> Besides.. I am excited to write from this point on....
> 
> English is not my first language (or autocorrect ruins my life) so if you see any mistakes, please don't hesitate to tell me!!


	10. Don't forget the love I have for you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream really tried.. he really did..
> 
> Oh, right. The villagers. They're still here.
> 
> ~~For now~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I had way too much fun with this chapter QwQ

"........Dream......?"

Dream gasped softly when Nightmare spoke, not just because he _hadn't expected_ Nightmare to actually respond to him, but also because of the way his voice sounded... still the same voice. But a corrupted and pained edge to it.

He looked at those violet eyelights in shock, and Nightmare didn't seem any better. He barely was realizing what was happening, not noticing the goop on his body and the pain in his bones.

But those familiar eyelights...

...

Dream smiled shakely and relieved, golden tears having appeared in the corners of his eyesockets. "Yeah.. i-its me N-Nighty... it your b-brother." He hiccuped softly, still smiling, his eyelights dimmed quite a bit, but his smile stayed. "I-its m-me.." very slowely Dream reached out, gently grabbing his brothers hands, ignoring that one of them was covered in goop. "Its m-me..." 

"....D-Dream..." talking seemed to hurt, Nightmare looked about to cry, just like his twin, his violet tears obvious. "Whats.. I... I-I..."

"It will be okay..." Dream shushed gently, so, so _gently,_ squeezing his brothers hands, smiling the softest smile he ever had on his face. "Don't try to talk... it will be okay...." his soul started to calm down, which helped Dream stay calmer himself, looking at his twin with the kindest face he ever had. Nightmare seemed confused and in pain, before he remembered what happened. He squeezed Dream's hands back, a sob escaping him. "D-Dreamy.. I-I.. I-I.. I-I a-am s-s-so... so s-sorr-ry..."

"Don't be..." one of his hands went to Nightmare's cheek, gently holding their heads together, looking into his brothers eyes. Dream didn't seem mad, or angry. All there was was worry, fear, and love.

* * *

"....wait... what...?" Everyone seemed extremely confused, turning to Nightmare. Said skeleton also seemed lost, not remembering this... Yeah, he had lost his mind.... but he surely would remember this... right...?

Apparently not.

"I thought you said that you went insane.." Horror mumbled, Nightmare becoming even more confused. "Yeah.. I did..."

A gasp from Dust made them all look up. "Nightmare..."

"Yeah?"

"You said the day you corrupted.. not the day you went insane." 

All of them looked unimpressed, Killer rolled his eyes. "We all know dad went insane the moment he ate the apple, Dust."

"Does that look like insane?" Dust pointed at the twins, with Dream gently, carefully, holding his twin in his arms. 

"..Hate to break the moment, Kills.. but Dust got a point." Horror agreed. "He doesn't look insane now-"

"No." Nightmare interrupted, frowning. "No. Surely- surely I would remember... _that._ "

"But Nightmare- you didn't remember Dream being aware either.." Dust said very softly.

"Because back then he didn't know about the deal, you bonehead."

"He knew Dream was aware!"

Nightmare sighed as Killer and Dust started arguing again, before trying to break it up. "Enough, you two." 

Only Horror and Cross were paying attention the memory now, but Cross was mostly looking at the twins, feeling so, so bad... poor Dream had no idea he was about to lose Nightmare, and even though he hated _present_ Dream... seeing him try so hard to keep Nightmare safe, and knowing he would fail, just broke his heart. It was like watching his world all over again.

Horror was looking around, cursing under his breath and snarling at the villagers, even though they couldn't see him. Oh oh oh.... if these people were still alive.. he would have a **_great_** time...

* * *

However, as he looked at the villagers, he saw that some of them were wanting to attack Nightmare, but being too afraid to hit Dream on accident. Dream already was weak as it is, a simple hit could maybe kill him!

Well.. one of the villagers wasn't having this fear. They were done. So, so done. They honestly didn't care about the money they could get with Dream, all they wanted was for their sister to be safe. But with these "guardians" around, that wouldn't happen. Just look at how much chaos they caused!

They were just a simple human. No magic.. no nothing.. what to do...

The human kept looking around, until they spotted something colourful, barely visible, on the ground and glowing. Dream's staff. He had dropped it earlier, and apparently, even with how weak he was right now, the staff hadn't disappeared. Just proof of how strong he was.

The human walked towards the object, before kneeling down, very, very slowely, touching it. Before picking it up. They spun the staff in their hands, before looking at the two guardians, who seemed calmer now, peaceful.

They looked at the staff again, before they grinned.

**_Perfect._ **

* * *

Horror didn't like that look. He hadn't liked how angry and determined the villager had looked. He had _not_ liked it when the same human found Dream's weapon. He hated the way they had looked at the twins, the smile that spread across their face.

Horror gently nudged Cross' arm, and the smaller skeleton looked up, paling once seeing the human heading towards the twin. How could this get worse?!!?!!?!

Welp, they were about to find out. 

"One of them found Dream's weapon." Horror spoke, getting everyone's attention.

"....I have a feeling you're about to go insane, dad." 

"Yeah..." Nightmare sighed, looking softly at his twin who was trying to comfort his passive self, not daring to use his healing magic, as that was purely positive. He was hoping that he hadn't hurt Dream too badly... those idiots, on the other hand...

Nightmare looked at the villagers, murder written all over his face. Ohhh... hopefully he gave them some sort of bad time. 

Because, not only did they hurt both him and Dream, wanting Nightmare dead and to use Dream as their slave...

But Dream was _sure_ to have a bad time...

Nightmare sighed sadly, looking at Dream with concern and care he hadn't looked at him with for who knew how long. Poor Dream... how old- no, young, were they back then? 

He knew Dream was strong. But that strong?

"U-uhm.. dad...?" The gang paled, all looking at the human, who was aiming the staff at the two guardians on the ground.

* * *

"D-Dream.. I.. I-I..." Nightmare breathed in a sharp breath, chocking on a sob, tears streaming down his cheekbones. He was in pain. So, so much pain. But, it was starting to dull, to slowely fade a bit, which was a huge relief. But, the fear, worry, and affection on his twin's face made him emotional, and it made him like the trashiest person on the planet. Even now... he still... he.. why...

"Shhh..." Dream shushed gently, ever so carefully, pressing his forhead against Nightmare's. "Shh.. shh... it will be okay, brother.. everything will be okay... shhh.." 

As slowely and gently as he could, one of his arms wrapped around his twin, before ever so gently, pulling him close to his own body, holding him in a loose and gentle hug, while Dream's other arm wrapped around his shoulders, gently pressing his skull against his own shoulders. Holding Nightmare in his arms helped him calm down, _a lot,_ after everything that had happened today. The screaming, the overwhelming pain in his soul, the _feeling_ that Nightmare was in danger, the poison, the angry villagers, after _everything..._ He thought that Nightmare.. that he...

Dream shivered at the thought, holding his twin closer. No. Never. He gently stroked Nightmare's skull, knowing the older twin liked to be pet, nuzzling his cheekbone against the top of his skull.

Apparently Dream was crying. When had that happened? 

Nightmare seemed exhausted, softly nuzzling against his twin's shoulders, eyesockets slipping closed. "D-Dreamy..." Nightmare sounded exhausted, his voice was starting to fade, the corrupted edge slowely leaving, and Dream sighed, holding Nightmare closer. "Everything will be okay, Night..."

Nightmare was about to say something else, when he noticed the villagers around them, all looking shocked, fearful, scared, _outraged,_ angry, and he hated the fact that he could feel every single bit of it. But he froze once he noticed a certain, violent aura, eyelights looking around.

One of the villagers had found Dream's staff, violent, angry, pointing it at the twins, his aura and ill-intend screaming one thing:

**_~~M U R D E R~~ _ **

Nightmare froze, eyesockets going wide once he saw the villager throwing the staff at them. Despite the pain, he screamed. "DREAM LOOK OUT-"

In his panic, he pushed the smaller guardian off of him, pushing Dream on the ground, succesfully saving him. Nightmare, on the other hand, couldn't save himself, getting hit on the right side of his face, succesfully shattering the bone as he fell on the ground. 

It _hurt._

Dream's staff was, like his magic, made from _positivity._ And that, was extremely dangerous for Nightmare, in the form he was currently in now. And god- that magic burned his bones, his soul, his mind, _everything._

The corruption on his body apparently did not like that, suddenly coming back to life at full force, the tentacles bursting out of his ribcage again, sharpening, appearing on top of his head.

The pain, it was too much. Nightmare couldn't stop the ~~corrupted~~ scream that escaped him as he collapsed. 

Dream froze the moment Nightmare had shouted his name, and didn't have any time to react as Nightmare pushed him on the ground, saving him in time. Dream's skull shot up. His soul skipped a beat when seeing the enormous cracks on Nightmare's right side of his face, even some bone had chipped of. His blood turned cold when he saw the corruption coming back to life, this time much stronger, the goop on his body spreading fast, the tentacles swirling angrily above his head. But Nightmare's scream made him move again. "NIGHTMARE!" Dream screamed, horrified.

**~~Kill~~ **

**~~Kill the apple~~ **

**~~KILL~~ **

_**~~K I L L~~ ** _

**~~Apple~~ **

_**~~M I N E~~ ** _

Nightmare cried out, grabbing his skull to try and stop the noises, grabbing his chest once the goop started covering his soul aswel, almost his entire body covered by it at that point. Around the area Nightmare had gotten hit, goop started to slip down, covering his right eye to protect it from any more harm. So thats why he had only one eye... 

**_~~K I L L~~ _ **

**~~Guardian~~ **

**~~Dream hurt me..~~ **

**~~That _T R A I T O R_~~ **

Being hit by Dream's weapon, the corruption mistook Dream for being the one to hurt him. Nightmare knew that was not true, it was not true...!!!!

But.. he couldn't fight it...

His body, his soul, everything, hurt so much.. the edges of his ~~eyes~~ eye started to grow black, he was slipping into unconsciousness. No... he couldn't let the corruption... win.. but staying awake was becoming harder and harder, his mind slowely starting to corrupt aswel.

The villagers around them were all frozen in shock, the villager who had attacked Nightmare dropped the staff on the ground. How was he not dead...?!

"You fool!" One of the villagers slapped the human across the face, the human turning angry. "Look what you did!"

"I thought ya'll wanted the monster dead!" The human yelled, the negativity he was causing not helping Nightmare at all. It only made the corruption stronger.

"Don't you see he has transformed into his _true form!?"_

~~**K I L L T H E M** ~~

Dream had shot up, sending all of the villagers hateful glares, before turning back to his twin in fear, golden tears having appeared in his eyesockets again. "Nightmare, please.. calm down.. it.. it will be okay... please Night.." he begged silently, his head starting to spin again, feeling extremely lightheaded, but the pain in his soul keeping him awake. It wasn't screaming death anymore. It was screaming something else.

**~~C O R R U P T E D~~ **

"D-Dream..." Nightmare chocked out. He was dying. He knew he was dying. ~~No, he wasn't dying. Not yet.~~ Nightmare knew the effect of the apples could go two ways: it would either kill him immediately, or corrupt and then kill him, seems like he would corrupt for a couple minutes before he died.

~~Well.. He didn't know he would survive corrupting.~~

Nightmare panted, trying to catch his breath, trying not to scream, trying to ignore the pain. He.. he couldn't go like this.. he couldn't... not leaving Dream with these _monsters,_ not with the amount of negativity Nightmare was feeling from Dream's soul. No..

"Nightmare... calm down...!!!" Dream's eyelights shrunk. He couldn't risk using his magic, the goop would not respond well to such positivity.

"Now we're all going to die!" One of the villagers cried out, and Dream snapped, anger appearing on his face. "SHUT UP!!!"

"D-Dream... Dream.." Nightmare kept calling his twin, closing his eye tightly as finally, his entire body was corrupted in goop. He couldn't go like this. No. The corruption was still extremely agresive, breaking and damaging his bones, his soul, now covered in goop, his mind was slowely starting to corrupt aswel. 

**~~T R A I T O R~~ **

Nightmare's calling got Dream's attention quickly, staring at Nightmare with fear. Not liking how pained he looked, obviously having trouble staying awake.

Nightmare knew the last minutes of him being alive would be him losing his mind to the pain. He didn't want his sweet little brother to see.. that.

"P-Please..." Nightmare forced himself to look at Dream, having a gentle and soft expresion on his face, filled with love and care and effection, not being able to hide his fear, staring at his twin. There was so much he wanted to say. But so little time. But he couldn't let Dream live with the thought that Nightmare had lost it. He didn't want his twin's final memories of him to be insane or losing it.. So with the final bit of power, determination and consciousness he had, Nightmare chocked out.

"Don't forget who I used to be."

With that, Nightmare's mind finally corrupted fully, his eye color switching to turquoise, those violet eyelights never to be seen again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay- so- I had to throw some kind of fluff in there, twisted as it may be, ~~because I am not ready to write angst and needed to mentally prepare myself.~~
> 
> Here we go- angst~
> 
> There won't be fluff for.. quite a while, from now on. No, I'm not sorry.
> 
> ~~I'm so sorry~~
> 
> I mean come on- we all knew this would happen!
> 
> Sure, I went a liiiittttllleeee overboard, creating fake hope and everything... but still! 
> 
> Welp.... prepare yourselfs for the next chapter... because there won't be a single bit of fluff in it. Only angst~
> 
> God I'm excited ~~and so scared.~~
> 
> English is not my first language (or autocorrect ruins my life) so if you see any mistakes, please don't hesitate to tell me!!


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